Eight months without a budget has rendered Keystone State politics tenser than ever. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) is now being sued by two Republican legislators for exceeding his authority and potentially delaying pension reform legislation that could also preserve local 403(b) choice.
After Wolf vetoed a budget bill and accompanying legislation last June — including a pension reform proposal that would allow public schools to keep working with the 403(b) providers they choose — a series of back-and-forth shots between the governor and the Republican leadership led Wolf to defund and shut down the Public Employees Retirement Commission (PERC), and now Reps Seth Grove (R-York) and Stephen Bloom (R-Carlisle) are suing him for it.
In the suit, the legislators claim that Wolf's actions could severely delay pension legislation. By law, legislation and amendments to legislation proposing a change to a public pension or retirement plan must be submitted to PERC and cannot be considered until PERC responds with an actuarial note, or after 20 “legislative days” (which, naturally, could be much longer than 20 calendar days). Wolf’s answer to the complaint claims key functions of the PERC have been moved to the Office of the Budget so that an appropriation would not be necessary for those functions to continue, but Republicans appear dubious.
With this latest volley and the fact that Wolf has now vetoed, either fully or in part, three Republican spending plans in eight months, the Republican caucus is fuming. During Monday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearings, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman grilled Budget Secretary Randy Albright about the governor’s own $33.3 billion budget proposal and tax increases, telling him pointedly, “That’s a nice math game, but come on.”
What happens next — whether the Republican-led legislature takes the governor’s proposal seriously, albeit with some changes, or puts together a veto-proof package of spending, pension reform and other initiatives of its own — remains to be seen.
Ray Harmon, Esq., is government affairs counsel for NTSA.
After Wolf vetoed a budget bill and accompanying legislation last June — including a pension reform proposal that would allow public schools to keep working with the 403(b) providers they choose — a series of back-and-forth shots between the governor and the Republican leadership led Wolf to defund and shut down the Public Employees Retirement Commission (PERC), and now Reps Seth Grove (R-York) and Stephen Bloom (R-Carlisle) are suing him for it.
In the suit, the legislators claim that Wolf's actions could severely delay pension legislation. By law, legislation and amendments to legislation proposing a change to a public pension or retirement plan must be submitted to PERC and cannot be considered until PERC responds with an actuarial note, or after 20 “legislative days” (which, naturally, could be much longer than 20 calendar days). Wolf’s answer to the complaint claims key functions of the PERC have been moved to the Office of the Budget so that an appropriation would not be necessary for those functions to continue, but Republicans appear dubious.
With this latest volley and the fact that Wolf has now vetoed, either fully or in part, three Republican spending plans in eight months, the Republican caucus is fuming. During Monday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearings, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman grilled Budget Secretary Randy Albright about the governor’s own $33.3 billion budget proposal and tax increases, telling him pointedly, “That’s a nice math game, but come on.”
What happens next — whether the Republican-led legislature takes the governor’s proposal seriously, albeit with some changes, or puts together a veto-proof package of spending, pension reform and other initiatives of its own — remains to be seen.
Ray Harmon, Esq., is government affairs counsel for NTSA.
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