Ross Township in the North Hills of Allegheny County has made a change to place all new non-unionized hires into a defined contribution plan, and will make an offer to do the same in collective bargaining with its public works employees in the near future. Based on our most recent report on local pension plans in Allegheny County, there were 56 non-defined benefit plans at the local level. Earlier this year we wrote that Findlay Township began placing new non-uniformed hires into defined contribution plans.
One would have to say that Ross Township is being very proactive in dealing with the costs of pension plans as it reported two plans in 2013 to the Public Employee Retirement Commission that were close to 100 percent funded. Its non-uniformed plan, which would be affected by the changes, had 39 employees and was 106 percent. The police plan with 42 members was 98 percent funded.
