By Tom Precious – NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

ALBANY— For the first time in recent memory, the huge pension fund for state and local government workers across the state declined last year, although it beat many other public pensions systems.

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said that when all the various pots are counted up, investments in the New York State Common Retirement Fund rose by 2.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended March 31, compared with 12.6 percent the previous year.

Though its stock, bond and other holdings rose overall, the fund lost money because of lower contributions by state and local governments and nearly $7 billion in payouts to retirees — up 7 percent from the previous year.

The fund ended the fiscal year with a balance of $153.9 billion, down from $154.5 billion the previous year.

The fund’s biggest investment — the U. S. stock market — dropped 6.4 percent last year. But those loses were offset by big gains in its private equity holdings — which includes venture capital and buy-out investments — and real estate holdings in various commercial and residential properties around the world.

DiNapoli said the pension system, with 1 million members, is fully funded.

Whether its performance, however, was good enough to ensure that state and local governments will not have to boost payments for their employees will not be determined until this fall.

For taxpayers, the fund’s performance is important because any gains offset how much cities, towns and other localities have to contribute for employee pension payments.

That directly effects property taxes and how much money is available for government services.