A group of state lawmakers in Connecticut are trying to convince their colleagues to restore funding to the Teachers Retirement Board Health Fund in reaction to a proposal that would cut state contributions from one-third to one-quarter of the costs and bump retiree costs to 42 percent from the current level.

Teachers would pay about $35 more per month, CT News Junkie reports. Currently, many pay between $500 and $1,000, receiving about $110 from the fund each month, according to the Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut. Increased expenses could be difficult for them to cope with given that many depend on their pensions, the organization states.

The legislators have proposed that funding be drawn from other sources, such as temporarily outsourcing food services for inmates. Governor Dannell Malloy, who put the original proposal forward, has responded that he is prepared to consider alternate solutions. The bill was meant to provoke a discussion so that the cost issues could be addressed, he reportedly stated.

Lawmakers seem supportive of retirees' health insurance benefits, the news source notes, and some have expressed confidence that alternate proposals to draw funding rather than cutting it can be successful.

A representative town meeting in Westport, Connecticut, recently voted to eliminate traditional pensions and other post-employment benefits for new, non-union town employees, following a similar decision by local pension boards.

While these workers will only qualify for health and other insurance benefits during their terms of employment, those employed before 2012 began will still receive retirement benefits. Officials have been seeking ways to reduce compensation costs for some time, according to Westport News, although some reportedly intend to establish a defined-contribution plan for the employees affected by this decision.

The decision was motivated partly by the 2011 discovery that a previous estimate of the town's financial obligations had substantially underestimated the extent of the town's liability for employee retirement benefits.

Officials told the source that they are still working to figure out how to cope with a remaining unfunded liability of at least $75 million for current employees' retirement benefits, and one noted that defined-contribution plans may cost more at first because of reduced funding going into the pension system.