The House of Representatives left town for the week Wednesday without a vote on a Republican plan to alter the retirement benefits of future school and state workers.

Republican leadership had indicated the pension proposal, backed by Gov. Tom Corbett, was on the agenda Tuesday, and members discussed the bill in private meetings. But they declined to call a vote that day or the next. “It’s a complex issue, and it just takes a little extra discussion to get people comfortable that it addresses whatever their concerns are,” House Speaker Sam Smith said after the House adjourned. “We’re a little slower this week than I probably would have liked, but we’re still moving forward and hope to get a pension bill passed by the House in the near future.” The Republican-backed proposal is in the form of an amendment to existing legislation, so the House would have to approve the language and then vote again to send the bill to the Senate.

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Source: Article by Karen Langley and Kate Giammarise / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau, June 12, 2014.