Corbett: Pension Costs for School Districts Have Increased 289% in 10 Years

Pension costs for Bucks County’s 13 school district have increased a whopping $64 million, or 289 percent, in the past 10 years.

Gov. Tom Corbett and Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley visited the Neshaminy Senior Activity Center in Lower Southampton Wednesday to talk pension reform. There, a group of locals met with Pennsylvania’s top leaders to discuss the problem that is on the mind of many.

“We are facing a pension crisis,” Governor Corbett said. “Across Pennsylvania, homeowners are facing rising property taxes due to out-of-control pension costs.”

Corbett’s push comes after a budget season where pension issues caused him to disagree with many of his fellow Republicans. Local school district’s across Bucks County, including all of the ones in the Levittown area, have cited rising pension contributions as a major issue.

“I urge the citizens of Pennsylvania to join in this fight and demand that the legislature address pension reform. It is the most important fiscal challenge facing the commonwealth,” Corbett said in a statement.

The governor’s concern appears to be just. Figures from the state show the current pension debt is approximately $50 billion and that number could grow by at least $15 million in the next three years. Corbett recently said on Twitter that “pension costs are consuming more than 60 cents of every new dollar of general fund revenues.”

The money, according to the governor, being spend on rising pension obligations could go to fund other important budget items.

Officials from every Levittown-area school district have come forward over the past year to say rising district contributions Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) worry them and could force the districts to raise taxes in the future.

Corbett earlier in July said more than 99 percent of school districts in the state that requested a waiver to raise property taxes more than the Act 1 limit cited the cost of pensions.

According to information from the governor’s office, six Bucks County school districts raised their property taxes over the Act 1 limit for the 2014-2015 school year.

Philly.com reported Corbett told the group in Lower Southampton that an overhaul the pension system could be a solution to help fix the statewide problem that the governor, who is currently up for reelection, has been fighting for the past few years.