Last week we heard from Gov. Tom Corbett, who has been criss-crossing the state doing his best Paul Revere impersonation: 'The pension crisis is coming, the pension crisis is coming.'
Actually, it's already here. And it's about to detonate in school districts across the state, straining budgets from one end of the Commnwealth to the other. To his credit, the governor has been saying so for most of his troubled first term, labeling it a 'tapeworm' in the state budget crisis and Pennsylvania's No. 1 problem.
Facing a tough, uphill fight for re-election against Democrat Tom Wolf, Corbett is now making his pitch directly to the public, and trying to put it in terms they understand - their wallets. Corbett is making a direct link between rising costs for the state's two major public employee pension systems and school property taxes. In other words, the wallet of Joe Citizen.
The governor was so incensed that the Legislature ignored his call to take action on the pension crisis that he took out his pen and stripped a ton of money the pols routinely use from the state budget.
The governor wants the House and Senate to return to Harrisburg to deal with the looming crisis.
Tonight we'll hear from two key members of those two ruling bodies as our live-stream Internet broadcast, 'Live From the Newsroom,' talks tackles the pension crisis, along with the state budget and education funding.
Joining us will be two of the most powerful men in Harrisburg, state Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester, the Senate majority leader, and Rep. Bill Adolph, R-165, of Springfield, the majority chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Yep, they're the ones who put the state budget together.
Also joining us will be longtime Haverford School Board member Larry Feinberg, who also just happens to be the founder and co-chairman of the Keystone State Education Coalition. No one has a better grasp on what school districts are dealing with in this era of dwindling funding and increased pension responsibilities.
Do you have a pension question you'd like answered? Email it to me at editor@delcotimes.com and I'll ask our panel.
Then tune in tonight at 7 on DelcoTimes.com for a frank discussion on the No. 1 issue in the state.
Don't stand on the sidelines. Get involved. Take part. I look forward to hearing from you.
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