Will the wave of baby boomers headed toward retirement bankrupt Social Security?

Don't worry unnecessarily, said experts last week at a New York conference for journalists who cover financial and social issues of aging boomers. A few relatively simple fixes could keep Social Security solvent for at least 75 years.

None are pain-free, they cautioned. But at least three alternatives for reform – raising revenues, reducing benefits or investing part of the Social Security trust fund in equities or corporate bonds – could work separately or in tandem to help build long-term stability.

And, they emphasized, workers must shoulder more responsibility for retirement by saving more money, in 401(k) accounts or elsewhere. No one should plan to rely wholly on Social Security.

The problem, according to projections by Social Security trustees: Annual costs will exceed Social Security taxes beginning in 2017. The program's trust fund will be depleted in 2041.

In 2005, President Bush pushed a reform plan to allow younger workers to put some payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts that could be invested in stocks and bonds. That plan, denounced as risky by both Democrats and Republicans, died for lack of support.

Since that time, the Social Security issue has been quiet. Too quiet, said Greg Anrig, a vice president of a New York-based think tank called The Century Foundation.

“It's better to make changes sooner rather than later,” Anrig told journalists last week.

Anrig and other foes of privatizing Social Security say a simple fix could raise the taxable amount of annual income to about $170,000 per individual from $102,000. That would include about 90 percent of all covered wages. Currently, higher-income workers pay taxes only on the first $102,000 in earnings.

Robert Butler, who heads the New York-based International Longevity Center, a nonprofit that studies aging, said the fix would affect only 6 percent of workers nationwide. But it could erase up to 40 percent of the shortfall, say analysts.

Democratic Presidential contender Barack Obama also supported raising the income cap in a recent Op-Ed piece published by the Observer.

“The best way forward is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that only the wealthiest Americans pay more and people in need are protected,” Obama said.

Republican Presidential contender John McCain says on his Web site that he supports private accounts and “will fight to save the future of Social Security…without raising taxes.”

Butler said he would support raising the age to qualify for Social Security by tying it to increasing longevity. Currently, full Social Security benefits begin at 65, but the age will go up to 66 and 67 in phases, starting with retirees born after 1937.

The age could go higher, perhaps 68 to 70, he said, if the government would also improve Social Security benefits for disabled workers. Currently, it takes too long to establish eligibility, he said.

Other possibilities mentioned in a recent AARP report:

Reducing benefits by 5 percent for all new beneficiaries.

Increasing the payroll tax slightly (currently at 12.4 percent, with employers paying 6.2 percent and employees paying 6.2 percent.

Investing about 15 percent of the total trust fund in stocks and bonds, making higher returns possible.