Educational employees across the state can weigh in during the coming weeks on a half-dozen proposals that would change retirement benefits for teachers and professors.

The Educational Retirement Board will hear public input in Santa Fe on Nov. 14, ahead of a Nov. 21 meeting to vote on the proposals.

The meetings come as the retirement board is working to reduce an unfunded liability of about $6 billion, benefits it has promised to current and upcoming retirees. The pension plan has a funded ratio of about 62 percent, which it hopes to boost to about 80 percent by 2030.

"The longer we wait to make the changes, the more drastic the changes will be in the future," board Director Jan Goodwin said Wednesday.

If lawmakers in the 2012 session don't make changes to shore up the pension, "our funded ration will continue to get worse, and we want to get rid of that uncertainty for our members," she said.

The proposals would make a variety of changes, including the age at which state employees can retire with full benefits. The proposals call for a range of retirement ages, from 50 to 62.

Under the current pension plan, most educators can retire with full benefits at any age if they have worked at least 25 years. For those hired after July 2010, the minimum number of years to have worked before retirement is 30.

Two of the plans would change the formula used to calculate an employee's benefits by extending from five to seven the number of years used to calculate his or her final average salary. A longer time frame generally means lower benefits.

Other parts of the various proposals deal with cost-of-living adjustments. One plan calls for no cost-of-living adjustment for current retirees while another would have the adjustment kick in after retirees are 67. Another would lower the adjustments from the average increase to 1.5 percent from 2 percent.

About 97,000 employees and retirees are covered by the pension program.

Lawmakers in the past year have generally supported making changes to shore up the pension plan while teachers' unions have balked at making them right now, saying the need to make changes including increasing the amount employees pay into the fund isn't urgent.

Once the retirement board makes a recommendation later this year, it will take the plan to lawmakers on an interim investments committee in December and to the Legislature in January.

No meeting place has been set for the Santa Fe meeting, which will held be at 6 p.m. Updates and details on other meetings will be posted at www.nmerb.org.

People who can't attend the meetings can learn more about the proposed changes and vote online for the plans they like.

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

ON THE WEB

See the details of the six proposed plans being considered by the Educational Retirement Board at: www.nmerb.org/pdfs/plandesignscenarios.pdf