New Jersey agreed to settle the case without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings and said it would cease and desist from committing any further violations.Illinois hired Chapman and Cutler LLP to assist in reviewing the enforcement action and to update its own coach outlet store policies and procedures using the New Jersey enforcement as a template. New Jersey’s disclosure woes were partly caused by a lack of communication between the state officials who handled its debt and those responsible for its pensions.In a preliminary offering statement published this week, the state divulges that it was contacted in September by the SEC about communications relating to the “financial effects” of pension reforms. Illinois last year established a two-tier system with reduced benefits for employees hired beginning this year. The SEC sought communications “relating to the potential savings or reductions in contributions” to the pension funds.When Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation in April, he estimated the reforms would shave $100 billion of contributions needed to bring the state’s pension system to at least a 90% funded ratio by a deadline of 2045, under a 1995 funding plan. The POS said the SEC informed Illinois that its inquiry should not be “interpreted as an indication by the SEC or its staff that any violations of federal power balance securities laws has occurred.” The state reports it is cooperating and providing requested information.The state anticipates that its statutory payments will begin to decrease in 2012 and continue to fall through 2045. At that time they will total $19 billion, instead of $25 billion had the reforms not been adopted, according to the offering statement. The state reports in the offering statement that it decided to revamp its pension disclosure and reporting practices in August, after the SEC filed a lawsuit that month charging New Jersey with securities fraud. The commission charged the state with failing to disclose to bond investors that it was underfunding its two largest pension plans. In a move prompted by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s heightened scrutiny of pension-disclosure practices, Illinois unveiled overhauled reporting standards in its latest bond offering statement that also announced a rise in unfunded pension liabilities to $75.7 billion and revealed a pending SEC inquiry.The state intends to sell $3.7 billion of eight-year taxable general obligation bonds in mid-February to fund much of the fiscal 2011 payments owed to its five public pension funds.The shop online 2011 sale was part of a fiscal bailout lawmakers approved earlier this month, which includes a temporary increase in state income taxes. The legislative action prompted Standard & Poor’s to remove the state’s A-plus GO rating from negative watch Tuesday.
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online le mercredi 26 janvier 2011
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