COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund is headed toward a financial crisis, but Ohio’s municipal leaders said they can’t afford the bailout.  There was a proposal at the Ohio Statehouse to force cities to increase their contributions to the pension fund, but that bill stalled before lawmakers went home for the year.  Big Lots: ‘Going out of business’ sales to begin at all locations The Ohio House passed the bill, which would require municipalities to increase their contributions into the fund, but the Ohio Senate was under pressure to reject it and it stalled.  Ohio Fraternal Order of Police leaders back the bill, saying the system has been out of balance since it was set up 40 years ago.  “For whatever reason, in 1984 when the cities came to the legislature and said, ‘Look, we want a set rate of contribution,’” FOP Director of Government Affairs Mike Weinman said. “Well, for whatever reason, they put fire at 24% and police at 19 1/2, and it's unfair.”  The proposed increase in the contribution rate for the police side of the pension would cost Ohio cities an additional $80 million a year. Cities said they simply can't afford it.  “Public safety is our largest municipal budgetary expenditure for cities across the state and if the state increases our pension obligations, that’s fewer dollars that we’re going to be able to invest in hiring new officers, paying higher and more competitive wages,” Ohiio Mayors Alliance CEO Keary McCarthy said.  House and Senate bills pass, fail in final statehouse session of the year The FOP said the increase would be phased in over time - and as for claims that cities can't afford it...  “I would like to challenge that,” Weinman said. “You know, NBC 4 runs stories all the time about what cities are spending money on, you know, and we know there's a lot of fraud, waste and abuse out there, things that they're funding that, you know, perhaps they shouldn't be."  “Just last year, cities across the state of Ohio spent $600 million into the police and fire pension fund,” McCarthy said. “These are huge amounts of money that our communities, our taxpayers, our cities, are investing into this pension fund, and again, we want to make sure that that pension fund is sound and stable for the long term. We're not unwilling to do our part.”  McCarthy said if the state orders cities to put more money into the pension system, it would be an unfunded state mandate. He said if the legislature wants more money to go into the public pension, lawmakers should first increase funding to cities.  The FOP said whether it's cities or the state, someone needs to take financial action because the pension is not sound.  Police recruitment in Ohio is down, according to the union, by 87%, and if there is no stability in the pension system, it will get worse.  Columbus serves trespassing notices at dozens of homeless camps “They're trying to implement all sorts of different programs and things, and one of the things people look at is that stability,” Weinman said. “You know, ‘what's going to happen to me?’ You know, ‘I was shot and paralyzed in the line of duty, so I got disability retirement,’ and, you know, that's the safety net that's there for people, and if that's gone, you know, you have to sit there and wonder, like, ‘What will happen to my family if I get injured?'"  There are 27,000 active members of the pension and 30,000 retirees.  The bill did not pass this session of the legislature, and now the FOP wants voters to contact lawmakers and ask them to support the bill in the new year.  Hear more about the pension fund as well as Colleen Marshall’s exclusive interview with outgoing Sen. Sherrod Brown this Sunday on The Spectrum at 10 a.m.