The market value of assets in New York State’s Common Retirement System increased by 18.3 percent during the first half of the 2009-10 fiscal year, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today.   That brings the total fund value to $126 billion — which, it should be noted, is still $30 billion below its fiscal 2006-07 peak.

The retirement system still has lots and lots of ground to make up.   Over the past five years, the return has averaged just 1.1 percent, according to the latest Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.  That’s nearly seven points below its targeted annual rate of return.  When returns fall short of 8 percent over a five-year moving average, the taxpayers are forced make up the difference through higher pension contributions.

Here’s another way to look at it:

Even if the pension fund ends the fiscal year with a gain of over 20 percent, it appears that taxpayer-funded employer contributions will need to more than double over the next five years to make up for the losses of the past three years, based on projections from previous modeling by the comptroller’s office.

DiNapoli also released this summary of the retirement fund’s asset allocation.  Seventy percent of the assets are classified as equities—which would qualify as a “high-risk” mix for an individual, but is typical of taxpayer-guaranteed public pension funds.