Pennsylvania still has not come up with an agreement on how to reform its two statewide pension plans (SERS and PSERS) the Reason Foundation’s Pension Reform Handbook outlines reforms that have been undertaken in states and localities across the country to deal with severely underfunded pension plans.
The statewide case studies (RI, MI, UT, AK) feature many of the key items we in Pennsylvania have heard about for some time: closing enrollment in existing defined benefit plans and moving new hires to defined contribution or hybrid plans; raising retirement age, changing actuarial rate of return assumptions, etc. The report also talks of the locally-driven pension reform efforts in the California cities of San Diego and San Jose where voters approved a series of ballot measures that did many of the same type of statewide reforms.
We noted that Pennsylvania wanted to look to other states when it put together its “Keystone Pension Report” in fall of 2012. A piece we wrote in early 2013 outlined the main points of that report and the reforms in San Diego and San Jose. We also pointed out what the logical alternatives would be if pension reform in Pennsylvania were not forthcoming, which is where things stand currently.
