BuckeyeBlog

According to Gongwer News Service, a bipartisan group of legislators has rejected Governor Strickland’s idea to help balance the budget by reducing the amount the state pays into the public employee retirement system:

A Strickland administration proposal to help balance the budget by reducing retirement contributions for state workers has been shelved, leading lawmakers said Wednesday.
 
Rep. Todd Book (D-Portsmouth) and Sen. Keith Faber (R-Celina) both said Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to cut employer contributions from 14% to 8% over the biennium has been rejected by lawmakers.

The governor is right on this issue and the Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly are wrong. The state is facing a huge deficit and this is a sensible idea to help curb it. In fact, it may be time for the state to begin looking at how generous its pension system is for retirees. Reform could end up saving the state’s taxpayers a significant amount of money in future years.

Jon Entine had a great article in Reason magazine earlier this year about the looming government pension fund crisis.