HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Editorial: …In 2001, [Republican]Gov. Tom Ridge and the Legislature approved increases in public pensions, including for teachers. At the time, the stock market seemed to do nothing but go up. The increases could easily be funded by the stock market gains.
Then the market crashed and had one of its worst decades on record. That left taxpayers picking up the tab for those pension increases.
On top of that, many Pennsylvania school districts contributed little, if anything, to their pensions for much of the last decade. Now the bill is due… (more)
