Committee hears broad proponent testimony for House Bill 280 to raise police employer contributions to OP&F

The House Public Insurance and Pensions Committee heard proponent testimony on House Bill 280 on Oct. 29, 2025. The bill would raise the employer contribution rate for municipal police from 19.5% to 24% over five years, require the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund (OP&F) to keep its amortization period within 30 years, and permit limited, actuarially triggered employer contribution adjustments capped at 0.5 percentage points in a single year and 1.5 points over three years.

Why it matters: Supporters said the measure restores long-standing parity between police and firefighters, protects retirement benefits that attract and retain first responders, and reduces the risk of larger, more costly fixes later. Several witnesses framed the proposal as incremental and actuarially grounded, and tied it to recruitment and public-safety consequences if the fund’s structural imbalance is not addressed.

“House Bill 280 is a fair and rational solution,” said Jay McDonald, chief of police in Marion and state president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio. McDonald and other police leaders testified that the state’s police retirement funding is out of balance with firefighters and that past benefit cuts and…