Bruce Papkin's letter in last week's issue raises some good points about government pensions but his solution doesn't go far enough. In a time when most non-government workers have only 401(k) plans with no guaranteed benefits, why should government workers continue to collect pensions tied to their final three years' earnings? It's time to replace government pensions with 401(k) plans beginning with workers under 45. These plans would greatly reduce the cost to taxpayers; that's why private sector and nonprofit employers have adopted them instead of pension plans.

Richard Hall

Red Bank