Dear Editor,
Sen. Mike Brubaker in his Jan. 9 column expresses support for legislation pushing public workers like me (a Science and Social Studies teacher at Twin Valley Middle School) out of defined benefit pensions and into a 401(k)-type defined contribution system.

I agree with Sen. Brubaker that this issue poses a significant fiscal problem for the Commonwealth. But even if teachers, nurses, police and other public employees stopped earning credit for additional pension benefits tomorrow, the Commonwealth would still have a pension debt of over $40 billion in unfunded liability, which will have to be paid off. That’s because the cost of providing pension benefits to workers going forward is not the problem. The pension debt for benefits already earned by workers was created over a 12-year period by investment losses caused by two recessions, and a system of underfunding by employers that was put into place by previous politicians.

The senator’s proposal would actually increase costs to taxpayers. It forces the pension system to pay off the existing debt over a much shorter period of time and will cause the employer contribution rate to soar even higher..