We’ve written about pensions and pension reform for some time now, including yesterday’s Policy Brief on the topic, and how most reforms are targeted toward new hires. For example, a defined benefit plan that allows workers to retire with full benefits at age 60 with 20 years of service could be amended (either by changing a statute or through collective bargaining) to say “employees hired after (a certain date) will need to reach age 60 and have 25 years of service to receive unreduced pension benefits”. That does not affect people working at the time of the change that were hired prior to the date the plan was altered. Additionally a governing body could, if permitted, close an existing defined benefit/contribution plan and convert it to something else.
Findlay Township, located in the western part of Allegheny County, has started off 2015 with changes to its pension plans. The data available from the PA Public Employee Retirement Commission (PERC) for 2013 shows three pension plans for the township: defined benefit plans for non-uniformed (19 active members) and police employees (16 active members), and a jointly trusteed, multi-employer plan (7 active members). The article on the changes notes that new non-uniformed hires will enter a defined contribution plan and new police hires, due to a reopened contract, will have a retirement age of 55 rather than the current 50. The township manager noted in the article that “the [township] is trying to do what they can to make the pensions as solid as possible”. Currently the funded ratio of the non-uniformed plan is 83% and the police plan is 69%, making the plans minimally and moderately distressed, respectively.
