Carbon County's retirement fund is performing well.

During the monthly meeting of the county retirement board on Thursday, Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary to the retirement board, provided an update on the fund.The portfolio value as of May 31 was $74,359,784, up $759,995 from last month."We continue to see an increase and hopefully will be hitting the $75 million mark soon," Crampsie said.He also provided highlights of the 2014 actuarial evaluation report, which provides a report card status of the soundness of the retirement fund plans and establishes the proper appropriation for the funding requirement for the county.Crampsie informed the board that this is the first time since 2008 that the county's actuarial value of assets has exceeded its actuarial value of liabilities with a funded ratio of 105.8 percent.Typically if a pension fund has an 80 percent funded ratio, it is considered to be "OK" and a 90 percent ratio is "very well."In regards to the funding requirement for the year, Crampsie said last year the actuary told the county that the estimated payment would be $776,000, but after an extremely strong fourth quarter performance, the actual required payment dropped to $21,017."You can see that reflects the soundness of the fund," Crampsie said. "Any time our fund requirement goes down it means we are in a very good position."He noted that the county has done a lot to control its liabilities, which contributed to the fund requirement decreasing, and had a strong 2013 rate of return at 21 percent for the year.In addition, the liabilities only increased 2.2 percent, nearly 5 percent lower than the average annual increase."All in all, the report says we are in excellent shape," Crampsie said. "The taxpayers should be happy about the funding requirement for 2014. Now we need to keep on course and keep doing what we're doing."Commissioner William O'Gurek commended Crampsie for leading the charge in helping to keep down liabilities, as well as address the revenue side.Crampsie had the board look at its investment managers and restructure its portfolio where needed.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard also thanked Crampsie for everything he has done.Commissioner Wayne Nothstein, chairman, said to not look at the retirement performance as a complete view of the county financial status."I want to caution the public because just because we had a good report on the retirement end, on the county end it's not the same," he said, noting that the budget crisis on the state level is really going to affect the county.He pointed out that at the 911 Communications Center, there may be a $750,000 shortfall this year, and possibly a $1 million shortfall next year due to state funding cuts."We continue to struggle financially," Nothstein said. "We are in good shape compared to most counties, but like every other county in the state, we are struggling financially and have to watch our pennies. We're not out of hot water yet."