WASHINGTON - June 22, 2011 - U.S. state and local governments will need to raise taxes by $1,398 per household every year for the next 30 years if they are to fully fund their pension systems, a study released on Wednesday said.

The study, co-authored by Joshua Rauh of Northwestern University and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester, both of whom are finance professors, argues that states will have to cut services or raise taxes to make up funding gaps if promises made to municipal employees are to be honored.

Pension funding in U.S. cities and states has deteriorated in the wake of the ongoing Depression while investment earnings have dropped, and some states, such as New Jersey and Illinois, skipped or reduced required payments.

The issue has sparked heated debates, from the streets of Wisconsin's capital, where thousands demonstrated over public employees' rights to bargain, to New Jersey, where lawmakers are expected to give final approval this week to a plan that will scale back benefits for public sector workers.

Wall Street rating agencies and investors in the $2.9 trillion U.S. municipal bond market are increasingly focused on unfunded pension liabilities, as they weigh the credit-worthiness of state and local government debt.