Con miles de millones en juego, Schwank presenta un proyecto de ley para abordar adecuadamente la crisis de las pensiones

February 26, 2015

READING, Feb. 26, 2015 – Frustrated by inadequate proposals to address Pennsylvania’s multi-billion dollar public and municipal pension problems, Sen. Judy Schwank today said she has formally introduced her bill to create an expert panel that would devise the best solution to the crisis.

Senate Bill 564 would create the Public Pensions Review Commission and the 25-member panel would have six months to propose Pennsylvania’s path to pension solvency.

“Make no mistake,” Sen. Schwank said during a press conference here, “every senator in my caucus – and most public officials I have talked with – believe the gaping unfunded pension gap is a very serious problem. To say or think otherwise is disingenuous.

“What has been the problem with the ideas that have been floated is they, at best, would do very little to help the situation and, at worst, would exacerbate it.

“The PPRC would be given the time and the resources to light a path that ends the burden for Pennsylvania taxpayers and frees the commonwealth to use those dollars to properly invest in education, in businesses, and our communities,” Schwank said.

The Public Pensions Review Commission would include the governor; the revenue secretary; state budget director; director of the Office of Administration; the leaders of the four legislative caucuses; the director of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts; the chancellors of the PA State System of Higher Education; the presidents of Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln universities; executive directors of the Pennsylvania League of Municipalities, County Commissioners Association of PA, Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, and Pennsylvania School Boards Association; representatives of the three public employee unions; and three public members possessing special expertise in issues relating to public pensions appointed each by the governor, president pro tempore and speaker of the House of Representatives.

The PPRC would be authorized to conduct hearings and receive appropriate information and analysis and be supported by the Joint State Government Commission. Its budget would be $1 million.

The commission would also be subject to right-to-know, sunshine and state ethics laws.

“At the end of six months, the PPRC would be required to do as the law would suggest and ‘recommend statutory and or regulatory changes needed or desirable to achieve … long-term, sound, stable, public pension structure for state and local governments’,” Sen. Schwank said.

While the combined unfunded pension liability for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System and the State Employees’ Retirement System is about $50 billion, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said in January the municipal pension shortfall is $7.7 billion.

In 2013, PSERS paid $5.5 billion in retirement payments statewide, and SERS paid $2.9 billion.

Nearly half of Pennsylvania’s 1,223 municipalities (562) are distressed and underfunded.

“Much is at stake, and it’s important we get this right the first time,” Sen. Schwank said. “It’s why we need the PPRC, and it’s why we must start this process now.”

Joining Sen. Schwank at today’s press conference where:

  •  Reading City Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz
  • Craig Hafer, principal, Walsky Investment Management Inc., Wyomissing, and
  • Dr. Solomon Lausch, executive director, Berks Business Education Coalition and retired superintendent for the Schuylkill Valley School District.

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Schwank Press Conference Thursday to Unveil Pension Review Commission Bill

February 25, 2015

HARRISBURG, Feb. 25, 2015 – State Sen. Judy Schwank and advocates will hold a press conference at 3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26, in the senator’s district office, to announce the introduction of her bill to best address Pennsylvania’s pension crisis.

The combined unfunded pension liability for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System and the State Employees’ Retirement System is about $50 billion, and the municipal pension shortfall has reached $7.7 billion.

Nearly half of Pennsylvania’s 1,223 municipalities are distressed and underfunded.

“Much is at stake, and it’s important we get this right the first time,” Sen. Schwank said.

Media coverage is invited.

WHAT:          Sen. Judy Schwank to formally introduce pension review bill

WHEN:          3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26

WHERE:        Commissioner’s Boardroom, 1st floor, 210 George St., Reading

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Pension Reform the Right Way: Schwank Introduces Bill to Form Commission

January 13, 2015

Panel would finally employ PA’s arsenal of experts

READING, Jan. 13, 2015 – Faced with a growing multi-billion dollar pension deficit and no good proposal to solve the problem, state Sen. Judy Schwank today said she will introduce a bill that would direct a new commission to properly examine the issue and propose a bipartisan solution.

The proposal would require a Public Pensions Review Commission to submit its solution to the commonwealth’s pension problem no later than six months after the bill is signed into law.

“We have known for years that Pennsylvania’s pension systems have been suffering because of the decisions of the past,” Schwank said. “But those decisions, like the proposals that have since been offered and rejected, were made without the full benefit of their implications.

“We continue to face a very serious problem in funding our state pension systems yet legislators persist in proposing solutions that fail to cure the actual problem,” she said.

If Schwank’s bill is approved, the Public Pensions Review Commission would be comprised of representatives from each branch of state government plus state system universities, state-related universities, the separate state organizations of county governments, municipal governments and school districts, major public employee unions, and the general public.

The PPRC would be authorized to conduct hearings and receive appropriate information and analysis and be supported by the Joint State Government Commission.

The commission would also be subject to right-to-know, sunshine and state ethics laws.

Sen. Schwank said she and other lawmakers understand that pension reform will be a top issue during the 2015-2016 legislative session. While well intentioned, she said she believes Senate Bill 1 will not be much better than past proposals that looked to cure Pennsylvania’s pension crisis.

“Most of those ‘solutions’ have failed miserably because they didn’t address the current unfunded liability and they didn’t look at how the current plans could be managed differently,” Schwank said. “Those proposals might have resolved the problem in the future but they did nothing to resolve the problem we are facing now.”

Pennsylvania’s pension plans – the State Employees’ Retirement System, or SERS, and the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, or PSERS – have a combined shortfall of $48 billion, Schwank said.

“We have wasted too much time rehashing the same proposals and political posturing while the pension issue festers. We need to get the right people to the table and find the right solutions to the pension problem,” Schwank said. “We need solutions that are equitable to state and public school employees as well as Pennsylvania taxpayers.”

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