Following a brief update to the Board of Selectmen by the Town’s Pension Committee and representatives from Westport Resources, which administers the fund, Finance Director Robert Tait pronounced the local program to be “in good health.”

The highpoint of the September 15 presentation was the news that after several years of falling substantially below the earnings benchmark, the fund has rebounded and yielded a 14 percent return for the 2014–15 fiscal year, Mr Tait explained following the meeting.

At the same time, he noted that the benchmark for the current fiscal year is 16 percent.

“During the previous four to five years, we were not as close to the benchmark — which is a standard of average fund performance,” Mr Tait said. “But the latest report shows good results with the pension fund increasing from $30.2 million to $34.6 million.”

No matter what the earnings on investments yield, Newtown and its taxpayers are responsible for the ARC or annual required contribution to the pension fund. Currently there are 24 retired police officers, 51 town workers, and 48 school district retirees receiving annual pension payments, according to Human Resources Director Carole Ross.

As a result of last year’s performance and yield, Mr Tait said the ARC will be about the same for the current fiscal year.

“With lower returns in prior years, there was more pressure to contribute to the fund through the budget, which receives more than 90 percent of its revenue from taxpayers,” Mr Tait said. “With the increasing returns, the pension trust fund is in good health and the town will continue to fully fund the ARC this year and into the future.”

The finance official said a number of Connecticut towns have stopped funding their ARC because of poor performance or earnings on their pension investments.

During the selectmen’s meeting, John Vaccaro of Westport Resources told officials he is recommending adding an equity exchange fund to the town’s pension investment portfolio. Pension Committee Chairman Thomas Murtha also reminded officials that his panel is more conservative about the areas and proportions of investment the fund is making.

“We’re risk adverse,” Mr Murtha said. “We don’t want to over promise and under perform, but we’re probably a little too conservative.”

Mr Vaccaro added that while the economy appears to be strengthening, actuaries have been reducing rates of return on pension investments globally.

“Anything can happen in the market,” Mr Vaccaro said. “But we’re always trying to exceed the benchmark.”