# Capital Metro Trans Authority Retirement Plan – Startran

Capital Metro Trans Authority Retirement Plan – Startran is a Pension Fund based in Austin, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Austin, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Austin, TX, United States
- **Founded:** 2005
- **Assets under management:** $58M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** capmetro.org

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The Capital Metro Trans Authority Retirement Plan, branded as Startran, was established in 2005 as a non-contributory single-employer defined benefit plan. It serves the eligible full-time administrative and leased employees of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro) in Austin, Texas, who are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1091. The plan provides traditional retirement, death, and disability benefits, with CapMetro as the sole sponsoring legal entity responsible for contributions. Startran's investment strategy is a multi-asset-class portfolio built around a core of public equities and a meaningful tilt toward inflation-sensitive assets. The plan holds allocations to large-cap and small-cap U.S. equities, international developed-market stocks, and emerging-market equities. To hedge against long-dated liabilities, it also maintains dedicated exposures to inflation-linked assets, private equity, and real estate. As a member of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS), Startran participates in annual asset allocation and performance benchmarking surveys against other Texas public plans. The plan operates with a lean governance structure, overseen by the CapMetro Board's Finance, Audit and Administration Committee, chaired by Terry Mitchell. The agency's President and CEO, Dottie Watkins, holds ultimate leadership responsibility for CapMetro's direction, which encompasses the Startran plan's administration. As of May 2026, no recent amendments to the plan's investment policy statement or material operational changes within the last 24 months have been publicly recorded. The plan's total asset base, estimated at $58 million, places it among the smaller municipal pension funds in Texas, where peers like the Texas Municipal Retirement System operate at significantly larger scale. Startran's structural differentiator is its narrow participant base: it covers only CapMetro's non-bargaining-unit employees, making it a pension silo within a larger multi-class workforce. This separation means the plan's liability profile and contribution policy are distinct from the retirement arrangements for CapMetro's union-represented employees covered under ATU Local 1091.

## Sectors

- Real Estate
- Private Equity
- Infrastructure

## People

- Dottie Watkins — President and CEO of Capital Metro
- Terry Mitchell — Chair of the Finance, Audit and Administration Committee of the CapMetro Board

## Questions

### How is the StarTran plan funded, and who bears the risk?

The plan is non-contributory, meaning employees do not contribute a portion of their salary to the fund. Capital Metro, as the plan sponsor, is the sole legal entity responsible for making contributions to ensure the plan remains adequately funded to meet its benefit obligations. All investment risk therefore falls on the agency, not the plan participants.

### What is the relationship between the StarTran plan and the union-represented CapMetro workforce?

The StarTran plan explicitly covers only non-bargaining-unit employees — specifically, eligible full-time administrative and leased staff not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The unionized workforce, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1091, participates in a separate retirement arrangement. This creates a bifurcated pension structure within a single transit agency.

### Does the StarTran plan invest directly in private companies or co-investments?

Given its estimated $58 million in assets, the plan is unlikely to engage in direct co-investments or individually negotiated private equity deals. Its private equity and real estate allocations are almost certainly accessed through commingled funds, fund-of-funds, or separate accounts managed by larger institutional asset managers. No direct investment positions are publicly disclosed.

### What role does the StarTran plan play within the Texas public pension landscape?

StarTran is a small municipal plan by Texas standards, where major state systems like the Teacher Retirement System of Texas oversee hundreds of billions. Its participation in TEXPERS (Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems) connects it to a statewide network of peer plans for benchmarking, education, and legislative advocacy. This affiliation is often the primary external governance resource for plans of this size.

## Related profiles

- [Bellarmine University Endowment](https://altss.com/profile/bellarmine-university-endowment)
- [Eva L. and Joseph M. Bruening Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/eva-l-and-joseph-m-bruening-foundation)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/capital-metro-trans-authority-retirement-plan-startran

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