With a few days left before our Senate budget is presented, all eyes are on the Virginia Retirement System (or "VRS"), which holds the pensions for hundreds of thousands of state and local employees.

The VRS has a current value of $48B, which is roughly 80% of its value from fall 2007 when the stock market was at its zenith. Currenlty, the state and localities make about $1.1B a year in contributions to VRS. That's a significant share of our state budget.