1. Any city of this state that now has or may hereafter have a population of more than forty thousand inhabitants and less than four hundred and fifty thousand is authorized to provide by ordinance or otherwise for the pensioning of its municipal employees and the surviving spouses and children of deceased employees and to appropriate and utilize its municipal revenues and other available funds for these purposes.

2. Any city authorized to provide for the pensioning of its municipal employees and the surviving spouses and children of deceased employees in accordance with subsection 1 may include within the provisions of any pension plan adopted the employees of any municipally owned or operated public utility, or may authorize by ordinance or otherwise a separate plan for the pensioning of the employees and the surviving spouses and children of deceased employees of any such municipally owned public utility. Any pension plan adopted covering the employees and the surviving spouses and children of the deceased employees of a municipally owned or operated public utility may provide that the pensions to such employees and their surviving spouses and children be paid from the funds and revenues of the municipally owned public utility. If the employees of any such municipally owned public utility are included in a plan covering all of the city’s municipal employees, then the plan may provide a pro rata share of the cost of administering the pension plan shall be borne by funds and revenues of the municipal utility, and if a separate plan is provided covering just the employees and the surviving spouses and children of deceased employees of the municipal utility, then the plan may provide the cost of administering the plan be paid solely from funds and revenue of the municipal utility.