Members of four public employee unions Monday sued the state for increasing the amount they must contribute to their own pensions and reducing the public's share of the cost.

A provision approved by the Legislature this year and signed by Gov. Bill Richardson calls for the government employees to boost payroll contributions by 1.5 percent of their salaries and reduces the government's contribution by the same amount for the next two years.

The lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Albuquerque, challenges the constitutionality of the temporary move, which critics have called "a pickpocket" and a "pay raid."

The plan is supposed to save the state about $42 million a year, lawmakers have said, and is seen as a way to help state government keep from deficit spending.

The change, which applies to workers covered under the Public Employees Retirement Association and the Educational Retirement Board, is slated to start July 1. The lawsuit aims to block it from taking effect.

The measure affects employees who earn $20,000 or more a year. An employees who makes $40,000 a year would see about $20 less in his or her paycheck each pay period.

About 57,000 employees, including teachers, are represented by the unions.

"Especially in Santa Fe, it's very hard to make a living anyway," said Arcy Baca, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 477. "This is just another blow to the whole thing."

The lawsuit claims the state constitution states that no fund "may be used, diverted ... encumbered or appropriated for any other purpose" than to benefit the plans' members.

The state may modify the retirement plans only to enhance or preserve the actuarial soundness of the affected trust fund or retirement plan, the suit says.

A spokesman for the governor said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.

State Rep. Lucky Varela, D-Santa Fe, regretted the court action but said the change in pension contributions was the least painful way to balance the state budget.

"We sure didn't want to have people laid off to have reductions in force, and that was the other option, to terminate people," he said. "We felt this was the most practical way of coming up with $42 million a year and be able to balance the budget."

Varela, who chairs the Legislative Finance Committee, said the measure contains a clause calling for it to expire in two years.

But Baca worried that might not happen.

"Sure, it's written in there that it's for two years," he said, "but will we ever get it back?"

State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said other options were layoffs, furloughs or reduced vacation days, but by increasing the pension contributions, at least employees would still see that money when they retire.

"All New Mexicans are going to have to share in the pain," he said, "and that includes state employees."

Peggy Stielow, a special-education teacher in Rio Rancho who attended the unions' news conference Monday in Albuquerque, said the increased contributions will mean a loss of up to $2,000 from her family's paychecks over the next two years.

"That would mean a summer vacation would not be in effect," Stielow said. "That's about as much as we were planning on spending this summer."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.