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Mass. starts state-pension reforms

Massachusetts has trimmed public pension formulas for some legislators and other high-paid state officials

Massachusetts has trimmed public pension formulas for some legislators and other high-paid state officials as it starts grappling with ways to trim the cost of its expensive public-worker retirement system, the Boston Globe reports here. New York's governor has recommended similar reforms. U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., tells me members of Congress are starting to look at the problem, too.

Public-worker pensions are one of the proudest achievements of state government, but Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other states have had a tough time balancing increasingly generous payouts to recent retirees with volatile investment markets and increasing resistance from taxpayers who have to make up the difference when investment values fall short.

But unlike Massachusetts and New York, Pennsylvania elected officials haven't shown much interest in doing anything about the problem, other than juggling the formulas that measure the funds' deficit.