JEFFERSON CITY — Pension finance is an eye-glazing subject, but it’s commanding plenty of attention as government retirement systems scramble to come up with enough money to offset steep stock market losses.

The board of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System tackled the subject today. After a lively debate, the board voted to set the state’s payment to the system next fiscal year at $276 million, an increase of about $20 million.

That was considerably less than actuaries had suggested based on board policy. Under the initial plan, the state would have owed $303 million next year. Some of the money comes from state general revenue while some comes from federal and other funds.

Gabriel Roeder Smith & Co., the system’s actuary, came up with the $303 million proposal based on a board policy that minimizes sudden changes in the state’s payments by spreading out stock market losses — or gains — over five years.

In retirement system jargon, the original proposal would have set the state’s so-called “contribution rate” at 15.3 percent of the state’s payroll, up from 12.75 percent this year.

Instead, the board set the rate at 13.81 percent. The vote was 7-3.

The new plan was favored by Gov. Jay Nixon’s commissioner of administration Kelvin Simmons. In a nutshell, it phases the stock market losses into the formula even more slowly for the next two years.

Simmons, a MOSERS board member, said that would help ease the pain of upcoming budget cuts, saving state jobs.

The new plan met with strong objections from Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau. He said the retirement system shouldn’t tinker with the actuarial calculations just to lower the contribution rate.

“This is just a political decision to save money up-front,” Crowell said. “We’ve put in jeopardy the actuarial soundness of the plan.”

He noted that MOSERS is assuming it willl earn 8.5 percent on its investments next year.

“We’re already being very aggressive with an 8.5 percent rate of return,” Crowell said.

Hitting that return “will be tough,” agreed Chief Investment Officer Rick Dahl.

The value of the system’s portfolio fell nearly 24 percent in 2008. But so far this year, the value is up 13 percent.