As usual, lawmakers have introduced a raft of bills (actually many are sponsored by Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend) designed to temper some of the cost increases taking place in Oregon’s public pension system and possibly put a lid on the increasing funding deficit driving those cost increases.

And as usual, its’s unclear whether Democratic leaders will give any of the bills an opening hearing in committee, much less an up or down vote.

Either way, here are the potentially consequential bills offered up for consideration so far:

Senate Bill 75, at the request of Gov. Kate Brown, tweaks the rules for employers who plan to apply for matching funds under a nascent employee incentive fund. The funds, one for schools and one for other public employers, are one of the only concrete - but still largely unfunded - results from a task force Brown appointed in 2017 to find ways to reduce the pension system’s unfunded liability.

Senate Bill 148, sponsored by Knopp, would give employees the choice of participating in either the traditional defined benefit pension system or a new defined contribution plan similar to a 401(k). Employees who chose the pension would be required to make a 6 percent contribution toward those benefits. The new defined contribution plan would require employee contributions of 6 percent of salary and employer contributions of 6 percent.

Senate Bill 149, sponsored by Knopp, would direct PERS to study options for an early retirement program that would allow eligible employees to retire and start receiving a pension benefit, but keep working for a limited period. During that period, the system would freeze the accrual of new pension benefits for that employee, and their employee and employer retirement contributions would be used to reduce PERS’ unfunded liabilities.

Senate Bill 531, sponsored by Knopp, is a kind of kitchen sink pension bill that includes a long list of changes to pension benefits, most of which Knopp has offered in previous bills. It redirects employee retirement contributions to support the pension fund rather than a separate individual account. It caps the annual salary used to calculate pension benefits at $100,000 after Jan. 1, 2020. It changes the final salary calculation to the average of five, rather than three years. It lowers the pension factor used to calculate benefits for service performed on and after January 1, 2020 to 1.2 percent of final average salary for every year worked.

Senate Bill 532, sponsored by Knopp, would require employers and employees to each contribute 3 percent of salary to employees’ supplemental individual retirement accounts. The purpose is to limit the so-called employer pickup of employee contributions to 3 percent, rather than the entire 6 percent.

Senate Bill 533, sponsored by Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, would redirect employees’ 6 percent retirement contributions into the pension system, which would offset an equivalent amount of pension contributions from employers. That employee contribution currently goes into a separate, supplementary individual account owned by employees.

Senate Bill 641, sponsored by Knopp and Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, would establish a new 401(k)-like retirement plan for new employees, with employers contributing 10 percent to the account and employees with the option of contributing and extra 2 percent. The PERS Board would also be required to offer employees various investment options for their accounts with different levels of risk.

House Bill 5032 would appropriate $100 million in general fund dollars to fund the school district side account at PERS that Brown has proposed to reduce their PERS costs.

House Bill 2288, sposnsored by Rep Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, would require that a portion of proceeds that the Oregon lottery receives from any sports betting be applied to reduce PERS unfunded liability.