Ohio cities concerned about plan to require them to ante up more for pensions

Some Republican lawmakers are proposing a plan that would require cities to pay more to shore up the fund that pays for police and fire pensions. And the lobby group representing cities says it could be a huge hit to them.

The bill’s sponsors say billions in cuts to benefits and other changes have helped the fund, but more money from the cities that employ first responders is needed. Kent Scarett with the Ohio Municipal League says he doesn’t have enough information about the plan.

“We don’t know what the numbers mean. We haven’t seen the actuarial studies. We haven’t seen any numbers on what the economic impacts will be to our members. We are hearing, just hearing anecdotally, that it could be hundreds of millions of dollars of an increase,” Scarett says.

Scarett says cities are already unsure what their revenue will be as more people may be working from home permanently. The last time employer contributions went up was 1986.

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