Auditor General DePasquale Issues Statement on Gov. Wolf’s Formation of Municipal Pension Task Force
Auditor General DePasquale Issues Statement on Gov. Wolf’s Formation of Municipal Pension Task Force
HARRISBURG (May 14, 2015)– Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today released the following statement regarding his appointment as chair of Gov. Tom Wolf’s Task Force on Municipal Pensions, which is charged with developing recommendations to address the unfunded accrued liability of Pennsylvania’s local government pension plans:
“Pennsylvania’s underfunded municipal pension liability has now grown to nearly $8 billion, an increase of $1 billion over a two-year period, straining the budgets of many large and small municipalities across the state. I appreciate Governor Wolf’s strong interest and commitment to finding workable solutions to this critical municipal pension challenge.
“Everyone involved understands the urgency of this issue. We want to get the job done as quickly as possible, and as thoroughly as possible. This work group’s job is not to study the problem. We will cull through the potential solutions and make recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly.
“As I said nearly two years ago when I initially raised the issue, our municipal pension challenges are not going away. We must act now to prevent this municipal pension issue from crippling state and local taxpayers, and jeopardizing the future for our communities and the retirement incomes of thousands of municipal employees. Waiting out this situation is not an option.”
The auditor general’s municipal pension report released in January found that nearly half of the employee plans statewide are in distress. The report predicts that without help, the City of Scranton – the state’s sixth largest city – could go bankrupt in two years.
Other cities where Auditor General DePasquale recently sounded the municipal pension alarm include: Pittsburgh, York and Jeannette.
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