State pensions for public workers in Florida could be boosted under new legislation

With lawmakers returning to Tallahassee for a legislative session Tuesday, significant changes to the pensions for school teachers, bus drivers, office workers and other public employees could be in the works. 

After a decades-long attempt to steer workers away from the traditional pension plan offered by the Florida Retirement System (FRS), one proposal has emerged to make it more attractive to workers, and another would allow a group of workers who had opted out of the plan to rejoin it.  

A bipartisan proposal in the Florida Senate restores a 3% annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) denied to new hires beginning in 2011. If passed, some 151,000 retired state, county and municipal workers would see an increase. 

A second proposal would allow those who had left the pension plan when the state started a 401k-style retirement option in 2003 and switch back to the traditional pension, or "defined benefit" plan. More than 3,000 current workers would be eligible.