MD puts $300M pension payment on chopping block to balance budget

By Len Lazarick | Maryland Reporter

Much or all of an annual $300 million extra payment into Maryland’s pension system is on the chopping block as Senate budgeters seek to balance Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $39 billion budget at a voting session Friday.

The governor had already used $100 million from the extra pension payment promised teachers and state employees in 2011, when their contributions into the retirement system were increased and future benefits were cut. Those actions are saving the state more than $300 million a year.

Sen. Ed Kasemeyer, chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee, confirmed Thursday that at least $250 million will be taken from the pension payment after official revenue estimates were reduced Thursday by a combined total of $238 million for both the current fiscal year and next year’s proposed budget.

at Maryland Reporter.

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