Budget passed without a tax increase. Senate passed a pension reform tonight also. The Pension Bill includes Legislators and Judicial Branch and will save very little money. I had an amendment prepared that would have made the Bill much stronger but we were two votes short of the needed 26. Every Democrat, along with 3 to 4 Republicans, absolutely would not support the stronger bill. So, finally tonight at the last hour I agreed to pull the amendment so that at least something could be voted on. If I hadnt pulled it the Majority Leader was going to postpone the vote and then there would have been the chance the House wouldnt have taken anything at all up due to timing. At least they have a vehicle now and hopefully they will amend it tomorrow. Here are just 4 reasons that pension reform, the real stuff, needs to be addressed. 1 - 163 school districts, thats one third of the school districts in PA, applied this year for an exemption to raising property taxes due to pensions. 2 - The state contribution for state and school employees is presently about $600 for the year. Thats a lot of money that cant be spent on other important line items. 3 - $.62 of every dollar in new revenue coming into PA goes to pay for the public pension system. THAT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE! 4 - If we were to pay off the unfunded liability today for the system, every Pennsylvanian would have to pay $13,000.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 03:03:46 +0000
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