HELENA -- Gov. Brian Schweitzer's plan to patch up three public-employee pension funds had more than its share of naysayers Thursday, as some groups representing workers objected to scaling back future retirement payments for new workers.

Yet, despite the objections, some still appeared in support of the bill, saying the 2007 Legislature must do something to fix public-employee pension funds facing long-term shortfalls of $570 million.

"You cannot afford to leave this session without solving this problem,'' said Tom Schneider of the Montana Public Employees Association, a union representing about 7,000 government workers. "The entire system has to be funded. We just can't allow this to go on and on.''

Schneider testified on House Bill 131, which is the Schweitzer administration's plan to fix three of the four pension funds in financial trouble. About 46,000 former and current workers and 17,700 retirees are covered by the three funds.

The funds' financial woes were caused by the combination of benefit increases approved by the Legislature in 1999 and 2001 and stock-market losses in the funds from 2000-2002.

HB131 solves the problem, in part, by increasing the amount of money the state and local governments pay into the funds, based on a percentage of workers' wages.

But it also says new workers hired after July 1 this year will get only a 1.5 percent annual increase in their pension after they retire. Under current law, workers covered by the three funds will get a 3 percent annual increase in their pensions, once they retire.

Most of the testimony before the House State Administration Committee Thursday focused on this proposed change in the "guaranteed annual benefit adjustment,'' or GABA.

Those representing workers and retirees opposed the GABA reduction, even though it would be only for new workers.

They said the lower retirement benefit will make it harder to recruit and retain good employees, as well as lead to workers in the same office with different retirement benefits.

"Reducing the GABA diminishes the system and results in inequity in the work place,'' said Roxanne Minnehan, executive director of the Public Employee Retirement Administration, which oversees the funds.

But the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, said it's not fair to expect government to pay the full share of bailing out the pension funds.

The House State Administration Committee took no action Thursday on HB131.

Its chairman, Rep. Dennis Himmelberger, R-Billings, said Thursday the panel probably won't act on any of the pension-bailout bills until it has a better idea of how they will fit into the budget next month.

HB131 would cost the state treasury about $2 million the next two years, but it would also cost local governments about $2.3 million, as they would have to increase their payment for their employees covered by the funds.

The Public Employee Retirement Board, which helps oversee eight pension funds, is supporting an alternative bill, HB159, that increases government payments into the funds without reducing the retirement benefit for future employees.