PA House Breathes Life into Public Pension Bill

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on June 8 revived legislation that would revise public sector pensions in the Keystone State.

The measure, Senate Bill 1071, will be back under consideration, reports WTEA, but has not been passed by the chamber as a result of the 157-26 vote. The state Senate had passed the bill 30-20 on Dec. 4, 2015, but House had rejected it 52-149 15 days later.

Senate Bill 1071, introduced by Sen. Patrick M. Browne (R-Lehigh County), would:

• establish a side-by-side hybrid pension plan for future state and school employees;

• modify future benefits of current members of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) and the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS);

• provide for Public Pension and Asset Review Commissions for both PSERS and SERS;

• establish a new side-by-side hybrid pension plan for SERS and PSERS, effective for most state employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2018 and for all school employees hired on or after July 1, 2017;

• establish a defined contribution retirement plan and add a new defined benefit tier to the existing DB plan structure;

• make changes prospectively to certain retirement benefits for current state and school employees; and

• modify the actuarial funding method utilized by SERS to determine the normal cost rate (a variation of the Entry-Age actuarial cost method).