As we have written quite often, the state talks “pension reform” and most of the time that means they are talking about the two large plans covering state workers and public school employees, and does not include local governments in the Commonwealth, which includes 3,000 plans.  About 300 of these are in Allegheny County.

A new proposal from the state legislature would create a new cash balance plan for public safety employees in all municipalities except Philadelphia that have full-time personnel.    It is a reintroduction of legislation from the prior session.  It would place new hires into a cash balance plan, which is a hybrid of a defined benefit and defined contribution plan.  Retirement age and length of service for normal retirement would be raised to 55 and 25 respectively, and those covered by a present defined benefit plan would stay in place until there were no longer any employees or beneficiaries under the db plan.