As reported by WBAL, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Monday introduced two bills dealing with city workers’ pensions and cost-of-living increases for firefighters and police.  The Mayor said the bills would help close the $700 million deficit in the city’s ability to fully fund retirement plans, as reported.

The mayor introduced a bill that would make non-public safety workers pay 1 percent of their salaries into the pension system per year for the next five years so that by 2017, workers would contribute 5 percent of their salary into their pension fund.

It’s a proposal she first came up with in her State of the City address.  “Baltimore’s pension system for civilian workers is the only large system in Maryland that doesn’t require any employee contribution. That must change,” she said at the time.

For more information, read the fully story from WBAL.