Alabama's pension systems appear to be in good shape and the state does an excellent job of keeping up with its annual required contributions. Alabama's big challenge is its extensive non-pension benefits—about $5.3 billion for state employees and another $14.6 billion for teachers. (In many states, the latter is not calculated on a state-level basis, but will appear as a liability for individual school districts.) Alabama has moved aggressively, calculating its liability earlier than many states and setting up irrevocable trusts in which to make payments toward its long-term costs. Moving toward full funding of this bill and consistently putting the money in its trusts would be smart fiscal policy. The long-term cost for state employees would shrink from $5.3 billion to $3.8 billion, and from $14.6 billion to $10.2 billion for teachers, because the interest the state is likely to earn when it invests more money over the long term can be applied to paying down the bill.