Taxpayer funded DB pensions are very alive today. Lots of big pots of money for politicians and government employee union leaders to play with (or influence), and extremely easy way to pay government employees with debt without actually having to admit it is debt due to taxpayer funded DB pensions being exempt from regulations regarding proper accounting such as ERISA 1974 and PPA 2006.

See: http://www.data-z.org/pension_database