Pennsylvania State Education Association Treasurer Jerry Oleksiak says the state House of Representatives recently passed a Pension Relief Act, aimed at heading off a coming crisis in the pension plan for state employees and public school teachers. He says it’s a reasonable compromise.

“We’ve worked very hard with the legislature to find ways to make some adjustments and I think we have, and I think the fact that the bill passed the house overwhelmingly is a significant sign that we took it seriously and the legislature took it seriously.”

Oleksiak says the main thing the bill does is spread out pension payments over a longer period of time.  It also increases the employee contribution from 7.5 percent to a little over 10 percent and extends the vesting period for new employees from 5 years to 10.  He says the bill won’t take the pension crisis away, but it will help, and a continuing stock market recovery will also help.  He appeared Tuesday on the WNPV talk program Comment Please by Univest.