Sep. 26--AUSTIN -- Managers of Texas' four big public pension funds say future benefits are secure and they have no plans to ask for financial help from state taxpayers in the wake of the collapse of several Wall Street firms.

Although many huge institutional investors routinely pumped money into the four financial concerns that tanked, leaders of pension funds for Texas teachers and other government employees said Thursday they placed only modest bets on AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers.

Current and future retirees won't be hurt, said spokesmen for Texas funds covering teachers and state, municipal and county employees.

The federal government earlier this month bailed out AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Lehman declared bankruptcy Sept. 15.

Texas public pension system officials said they invest for the long term and should weather the unraveling of the vaunted financial houses that got burned by investing heavily in mortgage-related securities.

"The Teacher Retirement System has every confidence that our highly diversified fund is well-positioned to absorb fluctuations in the market and thereby best serve the long-term financial interests of our members," said Howard Goldman, a spokesman for the TRS, the state's largest public pension fund.

"While there are indeed challenges ahead, the aggregate of Texas public pension plans remain well-funded," the state Pension Review Board said Thursday.

Since the financial houses' stocks plunged this month, nervous workers and retirees have asked the state's public pension funds about possible losses. That sent fund managers scrambling for answers. Some highlights:

--Teacher Retirement System officials said they lost up to $145 million in Lehman stock as the company went into bankruptcy. That represented just more than a 10th of 1 percent of the $108 billion fund. Year-to-date losses in Lehman, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Merrill Lynch, which nearly collapsed before being bought by Bank of America, cost the fund a little more than a half-percent of its value. TRS serves about 1.2 million active and retired public school and university employees. That includes 265,000 retirees.

--The Employees Retirement System, which pays the pensions of 70,000 retired state government workers, lost $175.5 million on investments with AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman and Merrill Lynch. ERS officials said the loss amounts to less than 1 percent of the fund's $22 billion value as of Sept. 15 -- and in recent years it has made $356.5 million in interest on bonds and notes issued by some of the troubled firms.

--Municipal Retirement System, through index funds, owned some $3 million of the firms' stock. "We do not anticipate significant losses," said Bill Wallace, spokesman for the $14 billion fund, which has about 30,000 retirees.

--County and District Retirement System, with 32,000 retirees, had $70 million of bonds from Lehman. Their value after bankruptcy proceedings isn't known, said spokeswoman Amy Bishop. She said the $17 billion fund's only other exposure to the recent turmoil was through a Wilshire 5000 index fund. She said she had no details.

Some local governments, such as Dallas and Dallas County, operate their own pension funds.

Officials with the city of Dallas Employees' Retirement Fund and the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System said they operate "very diversified" funds that remain strong.

Jerry Brown, chairman of the police and firefighter fund, said the fund has only "minimal" investments in the troubled financial firms.

Cheryl Alston, executive director of the city's fund, said, "We can pay benefits this month, next month and 10 years from now."

Still, she said, "I'm watching the developments minute by minute."

Staff writer Dave Levinthal in Dallas contributed to this report.

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