Public employee unions can’t be happy about this. The times, they are a changin’:

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed a pension reform bill Monday, requiring anyone who becomes a state employee next year to start contributing a percentage of their pay into the state’s pension system. The bill, aimed at modernizing and ensuring the solvency of the pension system for state employees, passed last week at the end of a four-week special session called by the governor in June. “These reforms will help ensure that Missouri’s state employee pension system remains solvent for years to come, helping us to avoid the pension crises other states are experiencing,” Nixon said in a statement. Starting in 2011, any newly hired state workers must contribute four percent of their salary into the state pension system. The changes are expected to save the state an estimated $662 million over the next 10 years.

I guess the Governor of Missouri has seen the writing on the walls of California, Illinois, Connecticut and all the other states that face potentially bankrupting pension obligations.