Pension experts, an asset manager, and a national clearinghouse for state governments fielded questions Wednesday from a legislative panel scrutinizing Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's pension-overhaul plan, providing an abundance of information but no clear direction on how to proceed barely a month before the Legislature is expected to take its...

A potential $140 million surplus in state reimbursements for Pennsylvania's school district pension costs should be plowed back into the pension system to help cover the mushrooming taxpayer share of the costs, Democratic leaders in the Pennsylvania Senate said Monday.

Making newly hired school and state employees enroll in a 401(k)-style plan would not seriously affect Pennsylvania's two largest traditional pension funds, so long as a new plan is adequately funded, administrators told lawmakers Wednesday.

Gov. Tom Corbett laid out a strategy Tuesday for reining in pension costs for Pennsylvania state and school employees that would reduce future benefits for current workers and require new hires to participate in a defined-contribution plan.

Corbett defended his austere approach to running the state government and said the state must conserve its revenue to pay for the ever-spiraling bill for public employee pensions.

Corbett said the state must conserve its revenue to pay for the ever-spiraling bill for public employee pensions.

The state Senate has approved a bill to refinance the Pennsylvania unemployment compensation fund's $3 billion debt to the federal government a move supporters say would save employers tens of millions of dollars over years.

Double-dipping the well-established practice of public workers collecting government pensions and salaries at the same time has become a hot topic for lawmakers around the country during these times of severely strained budgets and increased focus on the benefits provided to government employees.