PA pension costs to increase by nearly $500 Million in 2015

Pension obligations in the state of Pennsylvania are increasing and becoming a larger part of the state budget.

Eric Boehme of Pennsylvania Independent says next year’s state budget will need to feature a $460 million increase in order to accomodate the rising costs.

Boehme explains that this trend is the result of poor decisions by state lawmakers in the early 2000’s. 

“There were a series of decisions made by state lawmakers,” Boehme said, “The first two of those things increased pension benefits. Then in 2003, the lawmakers made the questionable decision to put off making those additional payments for ten years.

The ultimate consequence, according to Boehme, is that we are only at the midway point of a ten-year pension spike. 

Listen to Eric Boehme’s full conversation with Dave Heller in the audio above.