TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — State governments trying to balance their budgets have started rolling back pension benefits for public sector employees.
Several states have told current workers that their deals won’t be as good as originally promised, and others are looking into it.
At least three states are trying to reduce annual cost-of-living increases in the pensions of workers who already have retired.
In New Jersey, fears of benefit cuts for future retirees may be one reason for a jump in retirements. Through the first seven months of this year, 48 percent more public sector workers retired — or filed papers to do so later in the year — than did in all of 2009.
