COLUMBUS — After nearly three years of stalemate and delay, public pension system boards, retiree groups, worker unions and state senators grudgingly swallowed a bitter pill: generous benefits are no longer sustainable in the face of retirees living longer and stock market gains lagging.

The Ohio Senate on Wednesday endorsed a massive overhaul of the state’s four biggest public pension systems. The senate passed two pension reform bills overwhelmingly, one on a 30-3 vote and another on a 31-2 vote.

However, the bills face an uncertain fate in the Ohio House, where a vote may not occur for months.

The reforms call for retirees receiving lower cost of living allowances and workers putting in more time and accepting a lesser pension benefit at the end of a long career.

Taxpayers are not being asked to chip in more toward the pensions.

Pension officials and their actuaries calculate that the changes will shore up the finances of the retirement systems for the long haul. Without modifications, the pension funds would eventually run out of money and be unable to pay pension benefits.

Each day that lawmakers wait to enact the changes, the pension systems’ collective liabilities grow by $2 million.

Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, and Senate Minority Leader Eric Kearney, D-Cincinnati, joined forces on the bills and insisted that their fellow senators only adopt changes endorsed by the pension boards and backed by retiree and worker groups. With that ground rule in place, the four bills — one for each of the four largest retirement systems — moved swiftly and avoided being bogged down by amendments and tangential add-ons.

“I acknowledge there are individuals who are opposed to the changes because of the impact it has on them,” Niehaus said. “But the broad-based stakeholder support further convinces me we are doing the right thing.”

Debate in the House could be delayed, as some lawmakers say they want to wait until they hear back from a consultant hired to double check the numbers presented by the pension boards. The consultant’s report is due within 60 days.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or lbischoff@DaytonDaily News.com.