PROVIDENCE — Many city and town pension plans in Rhode Island are falling further behind on their promises to retirees and in some cases are teetering on the brink of insolvency, the state’s auditor general has told Senate lawmakers.

The health of the local plans, already a concern before the economy faltered, has only worsened with the recession, he said. And the latest numbers, bad as they are, are overly optimistic because they don’t count the losses pension funds suffered when the financial markets dropped last year.

“It’s a very devastating problem,” Auditor General Ernest A. Almonte told the Municipal Pension Study Commission on Tuesday. “It’s not sustainable the way it is.”

Reading from a report as he sat before three lawmakers, Almonte drew stark comparisons between the overall health of the local plans maintained by 24 cities and towns and the state-run Municipal Employees Retirement System, which communities can join if they are willing to make annual contributions that keep pace with projected liabilities.

The state plan, with 14,052 members, is not perfect, he said, having $91 million in obligations not covered by plan assets. But the municipal plans, with a similar number of members — 13,954 — have a combined unfunded liability of $1.7 billion, he said.

“It’s a staggering difference,” Almonte said.

The local plans are not fully funded because cities and towns in many cases are not making contributions that keep pace with liabilities, he said. Each time that happens, they pass the burden for today’s promises “onto future generations,” Almonte said.

While he did not provide an in-depth look at individual plans — those details will come during the next month and a half, when he issues a report that follows up on one released in 2007 — Almonte said the plans with the greatest risk of running out of money are in Central Falls, Coventry, Pawtucket, Warwick and West Warwick. He also listed plans in Cranston, Cumberland, Johnston, Narragansett, Newport, Providence, Scituate, East Providence, Narragansett, North Providence and Westerly as being cause for concern.

By contrast, some local plans are fully funded, Almonte said, but such comments were often tempered with the admonition that as bad as most of the numbers are, things are actually worse because of the drops in the financial markets and because cities and towns are overestimating their rates of return on their investments, thus reducing — on paper — their unfunded liabilities.

Almonte stopped short of suggesting legislative remedies, but he did say that the solution includes reducing benefits, increasing contributions from cities and towns, increasing employee contributions and raising retirement ages. He also reiterated his stance that communities would do better if they joined the state plan.

Daniel L. Beardsley Jr., executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, did not dispute Almonte’s numbers but said the league supported a bill last year that would have addressed several issues, requiring more years of service and stopping local plans from paying benefits more generous than those in the state plan. The bill “never got a hearing,” he said.

The commission, formed to study municipal pension problems and recommend solutions, will meet again on Dec. 15. Chairman Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence, said the group will probably seek an extension on its Jan. 15 deadline for making final recommendations.

redgar@projo.com