PA budget secretary calls for pension overhaul to include current workers

(Harrisburg) -- Governor Corbett's budget chief says any meaningful changes to Pennsylvania's public pension plans must include at least some reductions in future benefits for current workers.

Budget Secretary Charles Zogby  held a briefing on Corbett's wide-ranging plan to overhaul the pension system. It would cut future benefits for current state and school employees, divert new hires into a 401(k)-style plan and slow the increase in taxpayers' contributions to the state's two major public retirement funds.

Zogby says savings from future benefits are crucial to the long-range success of the governor's proposals to rein in an unfunded liability that now stands at $41 billion. Critics say those proposals are on shaky legal ground and unlikely to withstand a court challenge.