The Education Deficit

"The Democrats"

May 15, 2014 - The four Democratic gubernatorial candidates have talked about their personal stories, their support for greater education funding, and finding ways to generate revenue. But judging by the warnings from credit rating agencies, the largest financial headache facing the commonwealth is what it owes in future pension payouts to state and school retirees. And when it comes to paying off that debt, the Democratic candidates aren't exactly bubbling over with ideas.

You can find the article here.

Education and the economy rank at the top of the list of issues voters say they care about according to several Pennsylvania polls this year.

The Democratic candidates for governor have taken notice, speaking at length about their plans to spend more money on schools by raising taxes on natural gas drilling. A far less sexy topic for these candidates is shoring up the state's public pension systems, though it's a problem that actuaries say should be front and center.

For candidates, solving education budget shortfalls is a roughly $1 billion problem in a $28 billion budget.The future obligation hanging out there on state and school worker pensions is underfunded by about $47 billion - and that's a growing figure.

The state's legally-required, scheduled payments into those funds are also steadily ticking upward every year for the next couple decades. Republican incumbent Governor Tom Corbett has called rising pension costs a Pac Man, threatening to eat up the rest of the budget. Is it possible to fix our increasing amount of debt with a new governor in charge? Only time will tell.