Pa. Auditor: I can run muni pension watchdog

UPDATE: Gov. Tom Wolf's office says he'll "work with" Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on ways to keep PERC's mission alive; stopped short of agreeing how that'll work. From his statement: "The review of municipal pension plans currently performed by PERC can be managed elsewhere... We appreciate the Auditor General's offer. We will work with his office and others to ensure that review, necessary to the calculation of state aid payments to municipal pension plans, is performed with appropriate authority and in a timely fashion."

EARLIER: Pennsylvania's elected Auditor General, Eugene DePasquale, this morning offered to take over work done by the independent Pennsylvania Public Employees' Retirement Commission, which Gov. Tom Wolf has defunded.

"I do not care what entity does the work of PERC; what I care about is that Pennsylvania municipalities do not have to scramble financially while Harrisburg figures this out," writes DePasquale. "My office is charged with dispersing more than $250 million in state pension aid to 2,600 municipalities each year.

"Right now, we rely on PERC to provide the information needed to send those checks. Without that funding, some municipalities will not be able to meet their pension obligations and could incur additional interest expenses.

"Some entity needs the legal authority to do the work necessary to calculate the state aid payments. If you think we have a huge $7.7 billion municipal pension problem now, wait until our cities, boroughs and townships don't receive the state pension assistance built into their budgets.

"In order to ensure that municipalities receive these critical funds, the Department of the Auditor General is willing to carryout PERC's duties in this process.  However, transfer of this essential role will require conversations with the governor and the legislature, a statutory change, and adequate funding to handle the additional duties in an independent manner."

The auditor general's letter follows a request from PERC executive director James McAneny: "The only state agency capable" of taking over monitoring of Pennsylvania's 3,200 municipal pension plans and state subsidy check-cutting duties from the soon-to-be-defunded Pa. Public Employees' Retirement Commission (PERC) is the Auditor General's office."

McAneny discounts Gov. Tom Wolf's plan to have state pension funds replace the independent commission, noting the lack of current expertise and the conflict of interest in having the state municipal pension system review and oversee funding to its member municipalities.

By contrast, McAneny adds, "The Department of the Auditor General has been intimately involved with the program from its inception, and the learning curve would be the shortest," McAneny added.

He suggested Auditor General Eugene DePasquale hire his three-person staff (but doesn't ask for a job personally.)

McAneny concludes he's not asking that PERC be preserved, but rather "makes a plea to save a pension aid program that is desperately needed by Pennsylvania's local governments." He says he didn't talk to the Auditor General's office before making the request.