For some reason, Ted Nesi and Tim White shied away from what I take to be the key point of their latest report on municipal pensions, which they come right up to, here:

The police pension fund in Tiverton posted the worst investment performance in Rhode Island during the 10-year period ended June 30, 2012, with an annual return of just 3.45% after fees. Tiverton’s return was only half as high as the state’s top performer, Providence, which posted a 6.9% return over the same period.

I’m pretty sure that means that no local pension plan in Rhode Island actually hit its investment return assumptions over those ten years.  That’s the scandal of pensions (and what made the pension reform a bit of a trick, in my view).  Every year they slip farther from their targets, because in order to promise better benefits — ongoing, not just at some point in a spendthrift past — they’ve estimated rates too high, to bring the present costs down.

The report also says that Tiverton’s discount rate is 7%, but based on documents produced in the headier days of pension reform (here and here), it looks like the town went up to 7.5% in 2012.  (Of course, the board may have lowered it back down without my having heard of it.