Report: Pennsylvania could save billions on pensions
The report was released as part of a bipartisan commission set up by a 2017 pension law. The law also set up new retirement plans for all new public school employees and most new state employees. Those retirement plans go into effect
The report's recommendations and the new retirement plans do not affect the promised guaranteed pension benefits of current workers and retirees. Nor do they impact the roughly
The commission's report, documented in thousands of pages of testimony, was not an attempt to "create a blame game" for how prior administrations and legislatures helped cause the debt problem by not fully paying the employers' share of workers' pension obligation, Wolf said at a news conference. The commission's goal, he said, was to look toward the future to save taxpayers money by changing how the systems operate and invest funds.
"We are moving forward and still have the unfunded pension liability," Wolf said, adding his administration will continue to annually budget enough money to cover a fiscal year's worth of old debt.
The state is now spending 10 percent of its annual budget on the pension debt, said Rep.
"It's forward thinking," Tobash said.
The report's main recommendation calls for the Legislature to pass a bill merging the investment offices of the smaller State Employee Retirement System with the larger Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System.
There's no reason the systems, established a century ago, should be spending more than
"The investment costs per dollar of assets under management for a
How?
If the systems' investment functions were consolidated, the state would have more leverage and buying power in the investment market, Treasurer
"It's the economies of scale," he said after the news conference.
If the Legislature agrees to merge the investment functions, both systems would remain separate agencies with their own day-to-day managers and employees.
The commission did not think the Legislature would be willing to merge the systems' entire operations, Tobash said. So it settled for only the investment function, he said.
Other annual savings, totaling
All savings --
717-783-7305
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