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Ask the Governor – June 10, 2013 (complete 1-hour audio program)

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Starting this month, we will be placing audio from the complete “Ask the Governor” programs on PAMatters.com. Now, you can listen to the entire program and/or watch video clips of specific topics. Click the play button to get started…

[audio:AsktheGov06-10-13_1.mp3]

 

This program was recorded Monday, June 10th, 2013 and includes discussions on the following topics and more:
-The Philadelphia building collapse investigation
-The budget talks
-Liquor privatization efforts
-Pension reform
-Transportation funding
-The return of Pennsylvania’s original copy of the Bill of Rights
-And listener & web viewer emails

 

Our next program is scheduled for July 3rd. Submit your question or comment today by clicking on the Ask the Governor link at the top of this page. Be sure to include at least your first name and the town where you live, and please be brief.

 

Busy June on Tap in Harrisburg

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The House and Senate are due back in session on June 3rd.  From there only 15-or so session days separate lawmakers form the state budget deadline.  But Governor Tom Corbett views every day as a working day, and there are plenty of policy issues he’d like to see addressed alongside a third consecutive on-time budget. 

“We need to focus on [liquor privatization], we need to focus on pensions, we need to focus on transportation, we need to focus on the budget,” Corbett said on the May edition of Ask the Governor.  “There has been work done behind the scenes.  I believe we can get this done.” 

Most capitol observers, however, would classify passage of two of the three big policy issues as a major victory for the Corbett administration. 

Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) identifies transportation as the issue most likely to be completed before lawmakers’ summer break.  “We have very, very strong bipartisan interest in transportation infrastructure funding,” he says.  “I think that can certainly be done.” 

Trailing the pack of policy issues, Pileggi says, is pension reform.  “We have not even seen committee action on that plan to date and the bills have just been introduced… that is an incredibly complex and technically difficult task.”   

Following this week’s hearing on liquor privatization, Senate Law & Justice Committee Chairman Charles McIlhinney (R-Bucks) made it clear that he won’t start drafting a bill until after all three public hearings have been completed.  He does not view it as an issue that must be finalized this budget season.  The House version of a privatization bill (HB 790) is viewed as a non-starter in the Senate.

Radio PA Roundtable 05.10.13

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On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, Brad Christman and Matt Paul remember the life and governorship of George Leader, who passed away Thursday at the age of 95. Also, the big money issues are moving on a faster track in Harrisburg…updates on pension reform and transportation funding.

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable05-10-13.mp3]

Pension Reform Plan Becomes Legislation

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Bills that are about to be introduced in the House and Senate will reflect the comprehensive pension reform plan that Governor Tom Corbett outlined back in February.  “Should we be successful, this will be the most comprehensive pension reform package in the United States of America,” explains Senator Mike Brubaker (R-Lancaster), who will sponsor the Senate bill.  As Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Brubaker also vows to schedule a public hearing on the issue. 

Without pension reform, supporters say the only other options are deep budget cuts or sharp tax increases.  “We have to convince both sides of the aisle in the legislature that this isn’t a partisan issue, this is a future of Pennsylvania issue,” Governor Tom Corbett said while flanked by supporters at a lunchtime news conference in the capitol building. 

Pointing to the current $47-billion dollar unfunded liability across the state’s two big public pension plans, Corbett says each Pennsylvania household would have to write a check for $9,500 just to cover that cost.  He adds that without reform the state’s pension obligations will consume more than 60-cents of every new revenue dollar in the years ahead.  The state’s pension obligation is growing from $1.1-billion dollars last year, to $4.3-billion by 2016. 

So what would the Corbett plan do?  Starting in 2015, new hires would be enrolled in a 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement plan, instead of the traditional defined benefit pension system that exists today.  Current employees would remain in the defined benefit plan, but their future benefits would be reduced to help save the state $12-billion dollars over the next 30-years. 

Doing this, the Corbett administration says, will allow the state to save $175-million dollars in the coming fiscal year.  PA’s 500-school districts are scheduled to share in nearly $140-million in savings. 

But opponents say there are hidden costs that outweigh the potential savings.  “You would speed up the process at which all of the dollars that are currently there would be paid out,” state Treasurer Rob McCord says of the move to phase out the existing pension plans, “and the professional investment managers would have to move it all towards fixed income, highly liquid assets that have very low returns.”

The public sector unions continue to lead the opposition, pointing to a 2010 pension reform law they say is just now starting to yield results.  “We have more folks going into it, money going into the system for the unfunded liability, and our returns are doing better,” AFSCME Council 13 executive director David Fillman said on an afternoon conference call with reporters.  He’s referring to Act 120 of 2010, which reduced new hires’ benefits while requiring them to pay more into the system.  Fillman says 11,000 workers have been hires since the law took effect. 

Even if state lawmakers get past the wrangling over the dollars and cents of comprehensive public pension reform, the question of constitutionality will undoubtedly wind up before the state Supreme Court.  And that may be what’s giving Harrisburg the most pause with just eight weeks to go before the new fiscal year.

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 02.07.13

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This week, on a special edition of Radio PA Roundtable, Brad Christman & Matt Paul break down key portions of Governor Tom Corbett’s budget address, including plans for education, pension reform and road & bridge funding.

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable02-08-13.mp3]
PA School Districts

Corbett Budget Gets Mixed Reviews from Advocates for Children

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While the state’s largest teacher’s union says the Governor’s budget fails students again,  another group sees signs of encouragement.  Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children says the budget begins to restore some cuts to core programs.

CEO Joan Benso says they were pleased to see increases for Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental Assistance.  She says it’s a turn in direction, indicating the Governor wants to make some important investments in children.

Benso is also encouraged by additional funding to do outreach for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  She says the state has seen its child population in Medicaid decline.

The budget also calls for 90 million more for basic education, but Wythe Keever, a spokesman for  the Pennsylvania State Education Association, says that doesn’t begin to fill the hole created since Governor Corbett took office.

Keever is not impressed with the administration’s argument that it inherited an education budget backfilled with one-time federal stimulus money.  He says budgeting is about choices and the Governor chose not to replace the stimulus funding.

Keever adds that the governor’s pension reform proposal asks teachers and other public employees to shoulder the burden, when they didn’t create the problem with the pension system.  He says new employees would be paying more for a lesser benefit.

The Association is not a fan of the governor’s proposal to privatize state liquor sales and create a four-year education grant program with the proceeds. Keever says the governor is proposing to spend money he doesn’t have yet.  He says privatization is far from a done deal; it’s been proposed many times over the last two decades in the General Assembly.

A privatization effort failed to get enough support for a vote in the last session and some lawmakers favor modernization instead.

Pension Reform Could Drive Budget Debate

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Perhaps the most controversial piece of Governor Tom Corbett’s $28.4-billion dollar state budget is the call for public pension reform.  The administration has penciled in $175-million dollars worth of savings next year, pending legislative action on the issue.  They say reforms would also free up nearly $140-million for the state’s 500 school districts. 

Charles Zogby briefed reporters on the budget just prior to the Governor's speech on Tuesday.

Charles Zogby briefed reporters on the budget just prior to the Governor’s speech on Tuesday.

“The reality is that our pension costs are taking most of our available revenue growth,” says Budget Secretary Charles Zogby.  The state’s pension obligations are expected to triple – to $4.3-billion – within the next four years.  Without reform, Zogby says deep cuts would be unavoidable.     

But legislative Democrats call it a false choice.  “We’ll work with him on [pensions], but everything he proposed today is not right, and we won’t support,” says House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny). 

The Corbett plan calls for new hires to be enrolled in a 401(k)-style defined-contribution plan and for adjustments to be made to the yet-to-be earned benefits of current state employees.  No changes would be made to retirees’ benefits or the benefits existing workers have already earned. 

The plan’s already raising legal concerns.  “He’s talking about changing future compensation for current employees, which has already been decided in the courts that is something that’s illegal, back in 1983-84,”  says AFSCME Council 13 executive director David Fillman.    

The state’s two biggest public sector unions – AFSCME and the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) – are vowing a legal fight, and that has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle concerned about balancing a budget on savings that would ultimately be in the hands of the courts. 

“The question is really, I think, what does a set of reforms look like that can secure 26-votes in the Senate and 102-votes in the House,” says Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware).  Pileggi has been serving in the Senate for more than a decade now, and knows that pension reform can be a profoundly difficult issue.