"Republican Gov. Charlie Baker ... signed into law a bill offering incentives to thousands of state employees to take early retirement, cutting the state's payroll by an estimated $172 million in the next fiscal year.... [C]ompromise language ... caps at 5,000 the number of executive branch workers who can opt for early retirement and allows the administration to designate certain critical positions that would be exempt from the program.... Employees must be at least 55 years old and have 20 years of service in state government to apply for early retirement. They can boost their pensions by adding five years to their ages or to their lengths of service."

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