You've heard about it. You know it's affecting your taxes and leaching money from infrastructure, business development, education and more.

Thanks to a combination of factors, Pennsylvania is in a $41 billion hole as it struggles to sustain its defined-benefit retirement plans. Meanwhile, municipal pension plans have amassed nearly $7 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Lawmakers are talking reform that could affect future retirement benefits — this time with the help of private-sector ideas — but how will they tackle the debt already incurred when the debate heats up in 2013?

In a two-part series, the Business Journal shows you how the state pension crisis came to exist, the reform measures that reflect the current thinking, and what the crisis means — and could mean — to your business.