GOP Digs In On Pension Reform After Wolf Budget Address

By Tony Romeo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Addressing the spiking costs of school and state employee pensions is one of the main subplots of the battle that lay ahead over the budget proposal rolled out by Governor Wolf this past week.

Republican Jake Corman, the Senate majority leader, says the GOP won't consider Governor Wolf's tax increase proposals without pension reform. In his budget address, the governor did announce a pension initiative: eliminating excessive fees to pension account managers and instead investing pension funds in safe, conservative accounts.

"We're going to stop excessive fees to Wall Street managers. We're going to improve retirement security for state workers."

But Senate GOP leader Corman says Wolf's pension proposals are inadequate.

"I think what he did was a little maybe 'put your foot in the water' so to speak, but it doesn't do anything with the structural problem of the pension system."

Corman says without meaningful pension reform, property tax relief included in the governor's budget would be wiped out by rising pension costs.