Lancaster County House GOP Delegation Supports Pension Reform
6/5/2017
HARRISBURG – On Sunday, the state Senate began the process of moving pension reform legislation. In anticipation that the Senate will complete its work on the measure, Senate Bill 1, and send it to the House, House leadership has scheduled Thursday as a legislative work day. The hope is to put the legislation on Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk by week’s end.
The Lancaster County Republican Delegation – State Reps. Bryan Cutler (R-Peach Bottom), Mindy Fee (R-Manheim), Keith J. Greiner (R-Upper Leacock), Dave Hickernell (R-West Donegal), Steve Mentzer (R-Lititz), Brett Miller (R-East Hempfield) and Dave Zimmerman (R-East Earl) – issued the following statement:
“Pennsylvania taxpayers are facing a combined unfunded liability of about $62 billion for the State Employee Retirement and Public School Employee Retirement systems. The legislation passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee Sunday night would create a plan for new state employees that are hired on or after Jan. 1, 2019, for SERS and July 1, 2019, for education system employees. These three options would be available to the new employees:
• A side-by-side defined benefit/defined contribution hybrid plan with a 1 percent accrual rate.
• A side-by-side defined benefit/defined contribution hybrid plan with a 1.25 percent accrual rate (this will be the default plan if no election is made by the employee).
• A defined contribution-only option.
“While the bill the Senate approved today is a first step in the right direction and will slow the accumulation of unfunded liability, we must wait until we see what kind of bill the House amendment process produces before we can say for certain that we will vote for Senate Bill 1.
“Our biggest concern going forward is continued growth of unfunded liability of benefits that have already been promised, and once the system is reformed the bill for unfunded liability must be paid.
“While frustrating, the wheels of legislation sometimes move incrementally to address large problems. We must take the opportunities presented to us. The governor has indicated he will sign Senate Bill 1. The time is now. We can no longer put this off and hope that our children or their grandchildren will find a way to fix it.”
Lancaster County House Republican Delegation
Pennsylvania House of Representatives