Pension COLA has hefty price tag

Charles Thompson has a story in the Patriot News about the high cost to taxpayers of the propose pension COLA. The Tribune Review also had an article last week.

There are also a number of editorials across the state cautioning against the pension COLA:

• Altoona Mirror: Consider cost of pension hike
• Allentown Morning Call: State pension hike: Bad time for a bad idea
• Intelligencer: Been there, done that
• Pittsburgh Tribune Review: A new pension grab: raises or reform?
• Patriot News: It's unwise to base state COLA on funds' return

For more on this proposal, check out Rick Dreyfuss's commentary on Pension COLA's and property taxes. And for a real solution to the problems with state and local government pensions, here is a proposal to put all new employees into a defined-contribution plan.