Pennsylvania's Next Fiscal Crisis

An excellent Letter to the Editor originally published in The Pottstown Mercury from a Chester County resident about the ticking time bomb of public pensions that will hammer Pennsylvania taxpayers in the next few years thanks to the neglect and ineptness of Gov. Ed Rendell and the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Pennsylvania's next fiscal crisis: Public pensions

In June 2007, I wrote a letter in The Mercury about my objections to taxpayer supported pensions. It is more important than ever to terminate this policy immediately.

I just read where the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System is going to need $4 billion annually in additional tax revenue to support their programs. The projected needs will rise from $617 million this year to $1.1 billion in July, and then hit nearly $4.2 billion in July 2012. These same types of programs have bankrupted the major auto companies and there is no way the taxpayers can afford to fund such an out-of-control system! It's obvious that our governor and legislators are going to do absolutely nothing to help us, since they feed from the very same trough.

All taxpayer-supported pension payments should be terminated immediately and those employees should be allowed to contribute to a pension plan of their choice and suffer from market losses just like the rest of us.

Our "public servants" must be sent back into private life without the obscene perks they've been accustomed to. Call your legislators and voice your opinion before this situation becomes any worse. If our suggestions to these self-serving individuals fall on deaf ears, we need to make them pay at the ballot box.

JIM FITCH
Bucktown