HOLLIDAYSBURG — The board that manages Blair County’s pension fund is recommending commissioners again increase the general fund’s contribution toward the county’s pension fund in 2025.

During the retirement board’s Oct. 2 meeting, members voted to amend a 2021 policy so the annual contribution increases by 5% or $250,000, whichever is greater.

Before the Oct. 2 vote, the retirement board’s policy reflected a desire for the county annual contribution to increase 5% or $250,000, whichever is less.

Based on the policy change, that means the retirement board is recommending the commissioners budget $5,788,125 in general fund real estate tax revenue to support the county’s pension plan. That’s $275,625 more than the 2024 general fund contribution of $5,512,500, which equates to about $1 for every $7 paid in real estate taxes.

Commissioners Dave Kessling, Amy Webster and Laura Burke — who sit on the retirement board with county Controller A.C. Stickel and county Treasurer Jim Carothers — will have the job of figuring out if the 2025 recommendation can be included in the county’s 2025 budget, which has to be balanced and adopted by the end of the year.

Because the county’s pension fund remains underfunded, the retirement board won’t be considering a cost-of-living raise for pension recipients, based on a statement distributed after the Oct. 2 meeting. Mirror records show the last COLA was granted in January 2013, prior to adoption of state law prohibiting COLAs by pension plans with less than 80% funding.

“We often are asked why we have not provided a COLA to our retirees, but at our current funding level, the statute won’t allow it,” Burke said in the statement. “We know this is hard on people and the best thing we can do is to maintain higher levels of funding so that eventually, that is something we can consider. When we get to 80%, I will throw a party.”