Statement by Ted Kirsch, AFT Pennsylvania President
on the Governor’s Office of the Budget report on public employee pensions
November 28, 2012
“The Corbett administration is using scare tactics, exaggerations and misinformation to convince the public that public employee pensions must be cut or eliminated to prevent state pension funds from consuming tax dollars that should go to schools, roads and other vital services.
“Teachers and other government service workers have always made their full contribution to their pensions, while the state contributed little or nothing for 10 years and permitted school districts to do the same. Now, politicians want to make dedicated teachers and public employees bear the burden of bad political decisions.
“Not only have teachers and other public employees funded their pensions, fully and on time, in 2010 they worked with legislators to craft a bipartisan pension reform bill that will – over the long term – replenish and strengthen the state pension funds and permit the funds to keep the promise of a secure retirement to public employees. In the bill, public employees agreed to increase employee contributions, cap the annual retirement benefit, raise the retirement age and double the number of years it takes for an employee to vest in the pension system.
“There is another solution to the problem of underfunded pensions that would require that Gov. Corbett and legislators end their policy of giving tax cuts and tax credits to big corporations and close loopholes that allow profitable companies to pay little or no taxes in Pennsylvania.
“It’s time to let the 2010 pension reforms work or consider raising revenues to fund public employee pensions. Public employees should not be asked to make more sacrifices. They literally already gave at the office.”