Our pension and COLA have been guaranteed, as you know and the pension deficit has been reduced significantly. In 2006, our unfunded pension liability was $68 billion. Today, with the transfer of $1,691,000,000 from our cost of living account to the pension and with the sale of two billion dollars of bonds to add to our pension confers, the present pension liability is less than $25 billion. Please recognize that the retirement annuity will be fully funded by over $200,000,000 per year for the next twenty five years and it bodes very well for our pension and cost of living adjustment.
We all recognize the significance of our COLA at economic times like these. Remember, Massachusetts teachers, COLA is about a dollar a day whether if you have a four year degree or if you held a doctorate. In New York state, their COLA is the rate of inflation times the first $18,000 of your retirement income. Our COLA is compounded; added to the previous years total and the multiple by the fight for a guaranteed COLA which we took on in 1995.