Ohio governor inks 5 state pension reform bills

Bloomberg

Ohio Gov. John Kasich

Five reform bills covering each of Ohio's five public pension funds — which include increases to employee contributions in three of the funds — are now law, signed by Gov. John Kasich.

Under the reforms, employee contributions to the $62.6 billion Ohio State Teachers' Retirement System increase to 14% from 10%, effective July 1, 2013; while employee contributions to the $12.4 billion Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund will increase to 12.25% from 10% in annual increments of 0.75 percentage points, beginning July 2, 2013. Employee contributions to the $700 million Ohio State Highway Patrol Retirement System will increase to 14% from 10%.

Employee contributions to the $76 billion Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and $9.9 billion Ohio School Employees Retirement System are not changing.

All five pension funds are based in Columbus.

Other reforms among the five pension funds included changes to cost-of-living increases and retirement ages, although not all the pension funds made those changes.

Mr. Kasich signed the bills Wednesday. The bills cleared the Ohio Legislature on Sept. 12.

— Contact Rob Kozlowski at rkozlowski@pionline.com | @Kozlowski_PI