The Vermont treasurer says the state is facing difficult choices to help resolve shortages in the pension system for state employees and teachers.
Treasurer Beth Pearce says the fund is now short $600 million. To save it from insolvency Pearce is suggesting reducing cost-of-living adjustments for retired state employees and eliminating them for retired teachers.
Pearce says an alternative would be for lawmakers to add $96 million to the fund, but that might be a hard sell in a tight budget year.
The retirement fund has been an area of concern for some time, but the situation worsened this year after the retirement of an unusually large number of teachers, due to organizational changes and the pandemic.
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