Stock market losses for the South Carolina Retirement Systems haven’t translated into reduced retirement benefits for Orangeburg County employees.

That contrasts with the Regional Medical Center, which lost about $6.6 million in its pension fund since March 2006.

At least one other county-owned hospital, Self Regional Healthcare Center in Greenwood, also lost money from its pension fund.

An e-mail from Self Regional Director of Communications Dan Branyon said the hospital lost money from March 2006 to December 2008.

“Self Regional’s pension followed the universal trend in losing money in percentage during that time frame,” Branyon said, although he would not specify how much was lost.

According to South Carolina Hospital Association VP of Communications Patti Smoake, there are 10 county-owned hospitals in South Carolina including RMC.

“There are 47 not-for-profit hospitals in South Carolina,” Smoake said. “Nine are special hospital districts, which are governmental hospitals created by state statute. The rest are private, state-owned or church-operated.”

The county-owned hospitals in Bamberg, Barnwell and Clarendon counties do not administer pension funds. Instead, employees are offered 403-B or 401-A accounts.

Orangeburg County Treasurer Steve Summers says the county uses the state retirement system for its employees rather than a self-administered pension fund.

“Public employees deal with the state retirement system,” Summers said. “The county or school systems match the employee’s contribution to the SCRS. Since it is a defined benefit program, the set amount is determined by several different factors. Once that is determined, the retiree gets a set amount.”

State Budget and Control Board Retirement Division Director Peggy G. Boykin says the retirement system includes past and present Orangeburg County employees, and employees from S. C. State University and every municipality and special-purpose district in the county.

SCRS contribution and benefit disbursement data is not broken down by individual political subdivisions.

“The Retirement Systems has three sources of income: employer (taxpayer dollars) contributions, employee contributions and investment earnings,” Boykin said. “These three funding sources help ensure the fiscal viability of the plans, even with current market conditions.

“SCRS also has a defined contribution plan, called the Optional Retirement Plan, in which the balance in a participant’s account is affected by investment performance,” she said. “Employees of local governments and other political subdivisions are not eligible for ORP participation.”

In 2005, the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission was created to oversee SCRS investments. The SCRSIC’s Web site reported that its portfolio ending June 30, 2007, was $28.56 million, up from $25.97 million in 2006.

That amount dropped to $27.04 million ending June 30, 2008.

SCRSIC Communication and Education Manager Megan B. Lightle says a state constitutional restriction prohibiting the Retirement Systems’ pension trust funds from being invested in foreign equities was eliminated by voters in 2006.

“Prior to February 2007, SCRS could only invest in U.S. equities and core U.S. fixed-income products,” Lightle said. “Afterwards, investments were diversified into international and private equities, fixed income, U.S. high-yield debt and global-asset-allocation products.”

South Carolina law still requires political subdivisions to invest according to government standards and not in equities or hedge funds. A state Supreme Court ruling in August 2008 made such higher-risk investments illegal.

In May, RMC officials noted the hospital made its investment decision two years prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling against such investments. They also said that many public subdivisions invested in equities before the court’s decision.

In December 2008, RMC trustees began to move the hospital’s pension into government-approved investments. The pension had about $29 million in February of this year.

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