Borrowings shape Suffolk's pension system pay-ins

If Suffolk were paying its state pension bills on time, the county this year would have seen its first cost reduction in the aftermath of the Wall Street fiscal meltdown, from $224.1 million to $217.5 million. However, because the county has already borrowed $272 million from the state, legislative budget analysts say the county’s 2015 pension bill, paid in February, rose from $155.9 million to $186.8 million. That total includes $29.2 million in interest costs from past borrowings. To pay this year’s bill, the county also borrowed another $59.8 million from the state, which it will repay over the next 12 years.