Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett spent most of his summer traveling the state and touting the need for pension reform. The legislators are now back from their breaks, but pension reform bills continue to gather dust.
Republicans have been vocal about Democrat lawmakers’ unwillingness to work with the reform bills currently on the table. Now, one Democratic lawmaker has clarified why her party refuses to engage with the Republicans. Rep. Michelle F. Brownlee (D) writes in the Patriot News:
Republican leaders have already acknowledged the real pension problem is debt, not benefit costs. The solution to pension debt is the same as the solution to credit card debt: Pay the bills. Yet the Corbett/Republican pension proposal focuses on cutting benefits for future workers.
Act 120 of 2010 already cut new worker benefits starting in 2011 by nearly 50 percent, saving Pennsylvania $34 billion. Further cuts will sacrifice the retirement security of tens of thousands of future teachers, nurses, first responders, counselors and other public workers. The strain on safety net programs would stress future state budgets. Why do that when the Corbett plan offered by the Republicans, by their own admission, will do nothing to pay down the pension debt any faster?
If “reformers” truly believe we need to pay down the unfunded liability more quickly than Act 120 does, then they need to offer additional revenue so the state and school districts can do that.
It’s irresponsible, and a huge disservice to Pennsylvania, for those who do or should know better to continue misstating the pension problem and misleading the public about the solution.
She was responding to an editorial lambasting both parties, written last week by Dwight D. Weidman, vice-chairman of the Franklin County Republican party. He wrote in the Patriot News:
A very wise Pennsylvania politician recently opined, “In Pennsylvania, the unions buy Democrats, and rent Republicans”.
No doubt what the author of this statement was thinking about when he made it was the fact that close to twenty Republican legislators have steadfastly opposed any attempt to help enact urgently-needed reform to Pennsylvania’s public employee pension system, because of their ties to public sector unions.
To be sure, not a single Democrat legislator is willing to step up and save the state from certain bankruptcy, but that shouldn’t really matter, since the Republicans control both the Senate and the House and could fix our pension debt crisis, but won’t, and that is disturbing.
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If lawmakers fail to act, this issue will, in time turn Pennsylvania into a large-scale version of Detroit, with both businesses and population fleeing ever more burdensome taxes that will be needed to fund the growing pension obligations.
Weidman criticized the 16 Republican assemblymen who “won’t get on board” with pension reform efforts. Many of those lawmakers receive campaign support from various unions.