Credit: train_photos via Creative Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0 Freight train climbing hill After plummeting at the onset of the pandemic last year, booming investment earnings have helped push the total value of pension fund assets over $90 billion, officials said Wednesday during a public meeting of the New Jersey State Investment Council. “The results, obviously, have been very favorable,” investment council chairman Deepak Raj said during the meeting. The potential record-setting investment performance comes as the state has been ramping up pension contributions in recent years to climb out of a huge hole created by past underfunding. It also comes after Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration resisted calls to short state pension payments amid budget problems that were triggered at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.