"As of March 2011, 89 percent of local government workers had access to some form of retirement benefit, with 95 percent of those with access participating.... Eighty-six percent (86 percent) of local government employees had access to health care as of March 2011.... In 2009, 21 percent of local government human resource executives surveyed reported that their government had made changes to employee retirement benefits since the beginning of the recessionx; 53 percent reported having made changes to health care benefits. In 2012, 33 percent of local government human resource executives reported changes to retirement plans within the past year, and 59 percent reported making health care changes."  MORE >>