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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Onorato: Merge municipal pension plans
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato
 

"There are over 3,100 pension funds in Pennsylvania and about 60 percent of them have 10 people or less. That has to change. What we should be talking about is: Should there be a statewide municipal pension fund? And are we willing to give up some of our control?" he said.

When combined, all of the municipal pension funds account for $4.7 billion of unfunded pension liability, said Kevin Evanto, Mr. Onorato's spokesman. He added that the state Legislature would have to create a mechanism to allow for the merger of the municipal pension systems.

The benefit of consolidation, Mr. Onorato said, may save municipalities big market fluctuations. In the past few years, Pittsburgh saw its pension funding drop from having 44 percent of the required amount to 29 percent, he said, and the county's pension went from 94 percent funding to 80 percent.

What is more, Mr. Onorato said, municipalities, big cities and counties should start by "fighting special interest groups that keep lobbying Harrisburg to increase benefits and lower the retirement age."

"It's pretty hard to argue against increasing benefits, but the reality of the day is that we can't continue down this road," he said, noting that Allegheny County's retirement board has consistently lobbied Harrisburg to keep the retirement age where it is at age 60 with 20 years of service.
Posted by Ben Waxman @ 11:40 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:46 PM, 06/24/2009
    How would that work, though? The state fund would be sitting at the table for every collective bargaining agreement in several municipalities. Imagine Harrisburg sitting down with Philly and the white collar city employee unions right now, telling them they need to up their pension contribution. The only way to enforce increased pension contributions would be to not ever have a contract with the unions at all. What would Onorato say to a union that yells "no givebacks!" every year? It's still a genius idea if only there was a way to have the particulars based on funding and not on contracts.
    — CleanupPhilly


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