A panel reviewing the Teacher and Employee Retirement Incentive has mostly set aside talk of dropping the program. TERI now serves 12,000 people who retire but are allowed to return to their jobs and draw pay.

Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, has been one of the program's harshest critics.

But a recent study showing the program is losing far less than projected has reduced the urgency for some to scuttle it.

Projections had shown the program added $650 million in liability to the state's retirement system. But the study released last month slashed that to a $100 million unfunded liability.

Rep. Dan Cooper, R-Anderson and one of TERI's authors, favors getting rid of the program.

But "as long as the retirement system says they can absorb the cost," Cooper said, "there's not going to be an appetite for changing it."

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