Government Pension Plans Facing Crisis in Many States

RiShawn Biddle has a good article at American Spectator on how public school pensions and health care benefits are a huge cost burden in many states. New Jersey is discussed in length, where Gov. Christie is taking on the state NEA by pushing for teachers and state employees to contribute 1.5% of salary towards health care costs. The article also touches on the pension crisis in Pennsylvania:

In Pennsylvania, the NEA affiliate is already fighting to stave off efforts by state and local officials to enact an array of proposed benefit cuts, increases in retirement ages, and hikes in contributions on the salaries of its 191,000 rank-and-file members. Keystone State taxpayers are bristling over having to shell out $4.2 billion by the 2012-2013 fiscal year just to keep the teachers’ pension fund afloat, a seven-fold increase over this year’s annual payment. These costs, along with the $9 billion in pension and retiree health care deficits, promise to be a major issue in this year’s gubernatorial elections.

CNN also ran a story on the looming costs of pensions for state and local governments (HT Reason Foundation).