A legislative package meant to keep Ohio's five public employee pension funds solvent has been passed by state lawmakers and awaits the governor's signature.
Gov. John Kasich is expected to sign the bills, which should put the issue to rest. While public employees who pay into and are covered by the funds might not be thrilled with the changes, they beat the alternatives.
The five pension systems had a combined unfunded liability of about $66 billion. Only about two-thirds of the benefits they were pledged to provide were covered financially.
Without the changes, the funds were headed for eventual insolvency. Current and future beneficiaries would not want that.
On the other hand, paying off the liabilities would cost every man, woman and child in Ohio more than $5,700. Taxpayers wouldn't want that, either.
To their credit, legislators returned to work after the summer recess to resolve the pension fund issue before the November election.
This is, however, just the tip of an iceberg for voters and lawmakers nationwide who face similar tough choices concerning other systems, such as Social Security and Medicare. We can only hope officials will deal with those challenges in a forthright manner.
