The state has no legal obligation to help local governments, at least not yet, but there is a sense of moral obligation since decisions by a state pension management board several years ago largely led to the problem of huge future pension liabilities. The state board manages pension funds for municipalities and school districts along with state workers. The state board opted to under fund the pension fund, which led to the current projections of large liabilities.

Under a plan laid out by the current state pension management board, and laid out in the legislation, the liability will be paid down over a number of years.