Day: July 23, 2015

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

By Sen. Scott Wagner Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

The purpose of this column is to share with you why your school taxes keep going up.

The answer is: INCREASING PENSION COSTS.

The growing pension costs of the ten public school districts that are located within the 28th PA Senate District in York County are staggering.

On June 30th the PA House and Senate passed pension reform legislation and forwarded it to Governor Wolf – Governor Wolf vetoed the pension reform bill within days.

The elephant in the room continues to be the MASSIVE pension crisis facing Pennsylvania taxpayers.

I was recently forwarded the pension information contained in this email for the school districts in the 28th PA Senate District.

Listed below are charts showing the pension costs from the 2008-09 to 2019-20, a span of twelve years.

The first chart shows each school district’s actual pension costs for the 2008-09 year and the second chart shows the projected cost for the 2019-20 year of each school district.

The final chart shows the percentage increase from 2008-09 year to the 2019-20 year.

As you review the charts, please note that for the 2008-09 year the total pension costs for the ten schools districts WERE $12,535,778  , the projected costs for the 2019-20 year WILL INCREASE to $103,057,888  , an INCREASE over a twelve year period of $90,522,110   per year.

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

The information that I am sharing with you is for ten school districts in York, Pennsylvania – there are over 500 school districts in Pennsylvania.

Please review the charts – I am sure you will agree that the Pennsylvania pension system is a ticking time bomb.

Pennsylvania must join the rest of the real world and go to a 401K retirement system.

History is history – the past is the past – NOW is the time to correct this problem.

By the way, in this email I only talk about school district pensions – there are many other departments affected by this pension mess – State Police, Penn Dot, Judges, State Universities, and workers from all other state agencies.

Over the next 30 days I will be meeting with various people in the private sector – not Harrisburg insiders – to discuss new ideas and options for a plan to move forward to diffuse the ticking time bomb.

To review the year by year details for each school district please click here.

I also want to report that Senate and House leadership have been meeting with the Governor over the 2015 – 2016 budget.

As I have continued to report, the solution cannot be higher taxes and more spending.

In the event that a budget deal would be reached, the Senate is on a 6-hour call – we would promptly reconvene to vote on the budget.

Addendum:  A reader who follows my emails closely sent the following response:
“Scott–You are close to making a key point that appears to be missing in the debate about Wolf’s budget proposal.  He wants to increase the state’s contribution to education.  It sounds nice, like he is trying to help kids.  But the fact is all of that additional funding and more will be poured into the black hole of pension costs.  If he really wanted more for education and to relieve property taxes, he would start by repealing prevailing wage and tackle pension reform.  But his budget shows what he really cares about….not schools and students, but rather the unions and their constituents.”

Great points about where the money is really going.

Sen. Walker represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Pension Cost Rising 800 Percent

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny Test

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny TestBy Joseph B Dychala

Delaware County is about to make history…

Never before has the Grand Old Party had a union leader, and not just any union leader, but the president of a chapter AFL/CIO endorsed to run as a candidate in any election as a Republican.

Are the local party bosses telling us the most Republican candidate we have is someone involved in an organization that has been clearly antithetical to the Republican party for almost a century? Or perhaps they think this is their best chance to run a candidate who would certainly not pass the scrutiny of a primary election cycle? The candidate endorsed by the Republican party is AFL/CIO president Paul Mullen.

The logic presented by party leadership is that they need to be more inclusive. Where have we heard that argument before? We clearly see how dysfunctional our federal leadership is for these very same reasons. Time and time again on the national level conservatives are told they cannot be elected because they need to change their stance on illegal immigration, raising taxes, a whole host of social issues plus (insert cause du jour) many other reasons. This is simply false.

Voters want clear choices in a campaign. Yet at the same time voters seek middle ground and compromise when it come to governing. Compromise should never mean conservatives must abandon everything we hold true to appease the opposing viewpoint while receiving little or nothing in return. That is not compromise that is capitulation.

All of Delaware County is watching very closely the 161st Legislative District over the next few weeks, so too will most of Pennsylvania. This seemingly minor election in the Philadelphia suburbs also has the potential to affect politics on a national level. There is a true conservative choice with ‘write in’ candidate Republican Lisa Esler.

Delaware County will most certainly make history in a few short weeks but the question is how…

Will the voters of the 161st vote in favor of the GoP endorsed candidate to further blur the lines between the two major parties and contribute to a single party government under two separate names OR will we heed the clarion call to reject such a notion and stand firm in our opposition to bigger government and concentrated power that always leads to less liberty.

That choice is yours, my friends, and that choice is very clear…

Mr. Dychala lives in Aston

GOP Choice Fails Scrutiny Test

Katie McGinty, Is Selling Body Parts OK?

Katie McGinty, Is Selling Body Parts OK?
So Katie, is selling body parts from aborted babies OK?

Katie McGinty, who deserves the lion’s share of the credit for Gov. Tom Wolf’s accomplishments during his few month as governor,  has announced that she is stepping down as  his chief of staff to take on Joe Sestak in the Democrat primary for the 2016 U.S. Senate race.

The seat is now held by Republican Pat Toomey.

Hope someone asks Katie how she feels about selling body parts from babies.

Katie has been very critical about proposed pension reforms regarding public employees. Hope someone also asks her if she feels Gary “I Knew Jerry Sandusky” Shultz is worth a $330,699 public pension.

Katie McGinty, Is Selling Body Parts OK?

161st Debate Will Be Aug. 2

161st Debate Will Be Aug. 2
Leanne Krueger-Braneky, official Democrat

Two of the three candidates in the special election for the vacant 161st District Pennsylvania House Seat have accepted invitations to appear at the only public forum scheduled for the contest.

Committed to attend are Republican write-in candidate Lisa Esler of Aston and Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky of Swarthmore.

Paul Mullen, who had been supporting Democrats until the county Republicans tapped him as their candidate a few short weeks ago, has not responded as of this writing.

161st Debate Will Be Aug. 2
Lisa Esler, the traditional Republican

The event is sponsored by Delco Debates and will be 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 2 at Swarthmore Borough Hall, 121 Park Ave.

Candidates will make opening statements then accept questions from the audience. They will then make a closing statement.

Ms. Krueger-Braneky describes herself as a businesswoman and was the Democratic candidate in the race for the seat last fall losing to Republican Joe Hackett by 2,696 votes. Hackett’s resignation, April 30, prompted the need for a special election.

161st Debate Will Be Aug. 2
Paul Mullen may be a tough man to find but here he is campaigning for Joe Sestak.

Ms. Krueger-Braneky is endorsed by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, which represents the Pennsylvania state stores; the Education Voters Action Fund, which seeks more tax money for school employees; and Delaware County United for Sensible Gun Policy, a gun control group.

Mrs. Esler is a Penn Delco school director and an optician. She is endorsed by the Associated Builders and Contractors. She has declared herself to be a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. She believes state stores should be privatized and feels that the state will be bankrupted if the pension systems for school and state employees are not changed. She notes that education spending has consistently increased and could be reduced by eliminating unfunded mandates which do not improve outcomes for students and hurts the taxpayer with ever-increasing property taxes.

It should be interesting.

161st Debate Will Be Aug. 2