Columbus Dispatch | Pension reform sought by taxpayers group

Findings from TUA’s pension project on Columbus, Ohio, are featured in this article at the Columbus Dispatch.

An anti-pension group was in Columbus yesterday, decrying the fact that some high-paid government employees can get large cumulative pension payments after retirement.

Taypayers United of America, which was founded in Illinois and is expanding into other states, called on Gov. John Kasich and lawmakers to pass “meaningful” pension reform.

That includes ending traditional “defined benefit” pension plans for new hires and switching them to 401(k)-style plans; increasing current employees’ contributions to their pensions by 10 percent; and making employees and retirees pay 50 percent of their health-care premiums.

Rae Ann McNeilly, outreach director for the organization, said a plan to raise retirement ages, scale back cost-of-living increases and make employees contribute more — stalled in the legislature for more than two years — doesn’t go far enough.