In 2013, several Senate Republicans criticized Republican Governor Tom Corbett's plan to reduce future retirement benefits for current state and school employees, lawmakers and judges to save money.

But four months after voters threw out Corbett from office, Senate Republicans have decided to change their opinion.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said that his administration is preparing a pension reform bill which is quite similar to that of Corbett's plan to cut into $50 billion in long-term debt.

It is still not disclosed what exactly the Senate's new plan will look like, but it is being written by Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, who tried to get Corbett's plan approved.

Corman said that there are higher possibilities of the new bill to get introduced in April.

As per Corbett's plan, the pensions of the state workers, legislators and judges would have frozen starting on January 1, 2015. For teachers, the plan would have come into effect on July 1, 2015.

After those dates, employees would get reduced pensions that they have yet to earn under a new formula. At the same time, Corbett would have closed the guaranteed pension system to new hires, who would receive a corporate-like 401(k) retirement plan that rises and falls with the stock market.

It is legal to move new employees into a 401(k) plan. But Corbett's proposal to change future benefits of current employees was said to be illegal by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as by unions.

Critics highlighted towards a 1934 state Supreme Court decision that said a pension benefit granted to workers could not be reduced or eliminated as long as those workers abided by the terms of their employment.

According to independent financial reports written for the Public Employee Retirement Commission, Corbett's plan would have cost taxpayers an additional $47 billion over the next three decades.