User:RahalMccall69
The higher multiplier will add to SERS' financial woes, said Rick Dreyfuss, a business consultant and actuary from Dauphin County who has studied the state pension systems and is a senior fellow at Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg free-market think tank.Tomalis' extra pension payments would cost SERS an additional $70,000 based on life expectancy rates and SERS' assumed 7.5 percent investment return rate, he said. That's the additional liability measured in today's dollars, Dreyfuss said. It won't bankrupt the plan. But I think most taxpayers would believe $70,000 is a lot of money. Asked if the governor kept Tomalis so he could receive the higher pension, Corbett spokesman Jay Pagni said the decision was based upon <Tomalis>] expertise and knowledge of education. Tomalis' original role as higher education adviser evolved to include public school initiatives, Pagni said. He said Tomalis oversaw Corbett's Ready to Succeed Scholarship Program, which was signed into law with the 2014-15 state budget and will provide grants to middle-class students; re-established three so-called Governor's Schools focused on giving high-schoolers access to science, agriculture and engineering courses at universities; and set up an upcoming high school competition in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.Corbett has come under fire since the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported July 27 that Tomalis' email, phone records and work calendar showed little activity since he took the new position. The Post-Gazette story also said officials in various universities had <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Jimmy-Choo-For-Cheap>Jimmy Choo For Cheap</a> not had contact with Tomalis.On Tuesday, Tomalis announced he was resigning effective Aug. 26 to pursue other options. He made nearly $140,000 yearly in the advisory role. We have someone being paid a lot of money to produce little to no work and he is rewarded with a six-figure salary and a pension bounce? said Eric Epstein, who runs the good-government activist group Rock the Capital. It just seems wrong and unjust. Tomalis' higher pension is the result of decades-old pension laws. In 1974, the Legislature created the footprint rule for workers and teachers. The rule says if state workers leave employment on their own and later come back to work, their pension is based on all accumulated years of service.On May 17, 2001, Ridge and the Legislature passed Act 9, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2002. It retroactively raised pensions back to everyone's first day by increasing the multiplier from 2 percent to 2.5 percent for workers, and by 2.5 percent to 3 percent for lawmakers and judges. The multiplier, times the number of years employed, times an average of the final three years' salary, produces the final annual pension payment.Under Act 9, workers who left their jobs before Act 9 took effect could use the footprint rule to capture the higher pension multiplier if they worked at least three full years after returning to employment. The problem with Act 9 was not the increase in the benefit, said James L. McAneny, executive director of the Public Employee Retirement Commission, which <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Jimmy-Choo-Peep-Toe-Pumps>Jimmy Choo Peep Toe Pumps</a> reviews pension-related bills. The big problem was the retroactiveness of Act 9. Once Act 9 was enacted, state court rulings prohibited the Legislature from changing it for existing employees. In 2010, lawmakers passed and Gov. Ed Rendell signed Act 120, which reduced pension obligations for future employees only.When Act 9 and Act 120 were approved, Tomalis was no longer in state government. He had been Ridge's assistant education secretary from May 22, 1995, until May 18, 2001, SERS records show.But because Act 9 retained the footprint rule, Tomalis technically was not a new employee when Corbett hired him as education secretary Jan. 18, 2011. As long as Tomalis worked at least three full years for Corbett, he would be entitled to the higher 2.5 percent pension calculation for earlier years of service as well, according to McAneny and SERS spokeswoman Pamela Hile.Those three Corbett years would have been Jan. 18, 2011, to Jan. 18, 2014.In 2012, Tomalis angered public school officials with decisions <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Tory-Burch-Leggings>Cheap Tory Burch Flats</a> they thought favored charter schools over traditional districts. One was trying to change the testing rules to make it easier for charter schools to reach federal testing benchmarks on standard math and reading tests. Corbett eventually replaced Tomalis.Tomalis would have missed his employment anniversary to get the higher pension multiplier if Corbett had dismissed him outright June 1, 2013, when the governor named William Harner as education secretary.Instead, Tomalis got his full three years of employment while serving as Corbett's adviser at the same take-home salary, $139,906, as the current secretary, Carolyn Dumaresq.Corbett Cabinet members do not accept annual cost-of-living increases, but by law those raises are factored into retirement benefits, SERS records show. Tomalis' COLA-infused salaries that will use the higher multiplier are $130,180 in 2011; $145,619 in 2012; and $143,920 in 2013.717-783-7305 Copyright 2014,
