Municipal pension contributions by the employee are 10 percent with no Soc. Sec. benefit. The reason the pension system is underfunded is because the state is not contributing on behalf of its own employees and paying their retirees out of the same fund. If everyone takes from the fund and only local employees/employers are paying in, what do you think is going to happen? The state should be accountable to the state employees and taxpayers. This is the system they put in place, not our rules, theirs. They steal, we suffer. Do you think that private employers can get away without paying FICA?