Most rookie teachers and newly minted Pennsylvania government employees would see a smaller retirement benefit in the coming decades through the state’s two big debt-plagued pension systems, under legislation that passed the Senate on Monday and has the backing of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.  The Republican-controlled Senate’s 40-9 vote could be followed by swift House action this week to send the just-unveiled bill to Wolf’s desk.  The bill is the product of months of closed-door negotiations and more than four years of Senate Republicans pushing to end or reduce the traditional pension benefit for future state government and public school employees in favor of a 401(k)-style benefit. If it becomes law, it would be the second pension benefits reduction of future employees in eight years, both spurred by a debt tied to the pension benefits of current and retired public employees.  The bill, unveiled Sunday, would create a less expensive and less generous pension benefits structure in the future, while also shifting some risk of investment losses off taxpayers and onto the public employees of tomorrow.

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Source: WESA By MARC LEVY, ASSOCIATED PRESS, 1 HOUR AGO June 5, 2017.