Galveston County welcomes you to our Public Pensions Transparency webpage. It is our objective to provide the public with clear, understandable and searchable information regarding the county's pension and so much more.

Galveston County provides retirement, disability and death benefits for full-time employees through an agent, multiple-employer, defined-benefit plan. This plan is administered by the state-wide, public-employee Texas County and District Retirement System ("TCDRS"). TCDRS is governed by the TCDRS Board of Trustees and administers the pension plans of nearly 870 counties and districts.

The TCDRS plan provisions are adopted by the participating employers' governing bodies, subject to the state's TCDRS Act (the "Act").

The county has elected to follow the variable-rate plan provisions of the Act. The employer contribution rate is actuarially determined each year as a percentage of employee earnings, subject to plan changes adopted by the employer's governing body within the constraints imposed by the Act.

Personnel Information

• Employee Contribution Rate: 7% of pay
• Employee Matching Rate: 200%
• Years Required for Vesting: 8 years
• Service Retirement Eligibility: Age 60 with 8 years of service, or 75 years total (age + service), or 30 years at any age
• Prior Service Credit: 160%

Actuarial Information (1)

As of December 31, 2023

• Actuarial Accrued Liability (AAL): $552,033,405
• Actuarial Value of Assets (AVA): $498,312,729
• Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAAL): $53,720,676
• Funded Ratio (AVA/AAL): 90.3%
• Remaining Amortization Period: 16.1
• Assumed Rate of Return: 7.5%
• Pensionable Covered Payroll: $84,957,240
• UAAL as a Percent of Covered Payroll: 63.2%

(1) Milliman Actuarial Report for Galveston County, issued for January 1 - December 31, 2023

View the Public Pensions Summary

The chart below shows the actuarial value of assets versus the actuarial value of accrued liabilities for the period including fiscal years 2019 through 2023. Download the assets and liabilities visualization.

A Diversified Portfolio

Best estimates of geometric real rates of return for each major asset class included in the TCDRS target asset allocation as of January 1, 2023 are summarized below:

For more information, visit the TCDRS website.

Contributions 

The chart below shows the actuarial determined contribution rate versus the county's actual contribution rate for the period including fiscal years 2019 through 2023. Download the contribution rates visualization.

For additional resources, visit the Texas Comptroller's 'Public Pension Search Tool' webpage.

Pension Related Documents & Data