Galloway: Pensions a 'snowballing crisis'

From the BCCT.

Kudos to Rep. Galloway for hearing the outcry and starting a legislative response.

Sen. McIlhinney believes "the state needs to do something." That's a bold call for action..NOT. Even our school board members think the state should so something. The difference here, sir, is that you're one of the ones who is a "do-somethinger" in this mess. Let's get your do-something machine in gear sometime this decade, if you would?

Contact Senator Chuck McIlhinney (R-PA 10th) and Representative John T. Galloway (D-PA 140th)

Galloway: Pensions a 'snowballing crisis'
By: JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times

The pension fund for school employees reported a loss of $1.7 billion. The fund for state workers said it lost $11 billion.

The global recession has only added to a "snowballing crisis" with state pensions and, without a special commission, it's only going to get worse for taxpayers, state Rep. John Galloway, D-140, said Thursday.

Galloway has joined a long line of Pennsylvania lawmakers to ring alarm bells over two pensions - one for Pennsylvania's teachers and the other for all state workers. He sent a letter this week to the speaker of House of Representatives, calling for a commission on the pensions.

Each fund lost billions of dollars in 2008 and, unless the economy turns around, Pennsylvania could be forced by law to raise taxes to support those funds in 2012, lawmakers said.

The Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System reported a loss of $1.7 billion in 2008. There's about $60 billion left.

The state workers pension fund reported a loss of $11 billion, leaving $24 billion in the fund at the beginning of 2009.

Galloway said he believes the traditional legislative process of sending such matters to a committee for research and consideration simply wasn't going to work this time.

"I think the problem is so large - it's not something that we can just deal with in committee," he said. We need to act on this, and a (traditional) committee might never even come to the floor (of the House).

"A speaker's commission would bring in all the different committees and put more pressure on us to act," Galloway continued. "We're getting a lot of pressure to just do nothing and wait and see if the economy can just turn this around."

"But what if it doesn't?" Galloway said.

State Rep. Scott Petri, R-178, said he "would not oppose anything that brings more attention and urgency to this problem. Waiting and knowing, and just letting it stew is not resolving it.

"Before the recession, it looked like we were starting to build a way out of this hole - at least a way to make the hole smaller," Petri added. "But then the economy made a turn for the worse."

A number of state lawmakers are trying to secure federal stimulus funds to try and plug that hole, Petri added.

While he would support a speaker's commission, state Rep. Tony Melio, D-141, said lawmakers can't seriously consider any ideas that cost Pennsylvania more money.

"We had a meeting with the appropriations chairman, who told us that we just don't have any money and we can't spend any more money," Melio said. "Until we get the stimulus fund figured out, we just can't do anything."

State Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10, said he supported the need for a special convention on the pension and considers it a crisis. The state needs to do something, he said.

State Rep Gene DiGirolamo, R-18, was less certain of the need for a speaker's commission and he disagreed with Galloway's remarks about the committee process.

"I don't know if I agree with the idea that if it goes into a committee that it would just die in there. I think the committees would have to be part of this process also.

"Whether this is a crisis or not is going to depend on the economy over the next couple of years," DiGirolamo continued. "It's something that we certainly should be studying. What he's proposing - I'm not sure if that's the right approach."

The Pennsylvania school pension fund serves more than 600,000 current and former school employees in Pennsylvania, according to its Web site. The Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System has about 219,000 members, officials said.

Bensalem: No KOIZ

From the BCCT.

No tax zone for Horizon center
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

The Bensalem school board Wednesday night failed to approve a Keystone Opportunity Zone designation for part of the Horizon Corporate Center near the Neshaminy Mall. The five board members present refused to make a motion to consider the issue, so their inaction amounted to a failed vote.

The KOZ program offers tax relief to companies, typically allowing them to pay no property taxes on future development. Tenants also could get waivers from certain business taxes.

Brian O'Neill, who owns O'Neill Properties on Horizon land, gave an impassioned speech claiming that the KOZ designation would draw more business and potentially 2,000 construction jobs to the area during the next few years.

About 100 construction trades union members supported O'Neill at the meeting and left sorely disappointed.

Opponent George Flocco, executive director of Bensalem Economic Development Corp., said the tax breaks would only force township residents to bear an additional tax burden.

If the board had voted for the KOZ proposal, O'Neill Properties would have gone to the township today to get the next part of the needed approvals. Township, county and school district approvals are all needed to allow a property to take advantage of a KOZ.

Board members said it didn't make sense to allow prime real estate like the Horizon Corporate Center to get a break on taxes.

Express Scripts in Bensalem recently got KOZ status in Bristol, making it exempt from several forms of state business taxes through 2020. Its employees would still pay wage taxes to the communities where they live or work.