Commonwealth Foundation Pres. On Pa. Pension Reform: Gov. Wolf Should Put People's Interests Over Special Interests

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Commonwealth Foundation President and CEO, Matt Brouillette, spoke with Talk Radio 1210 WPHT midday host Dom Giordano about the teachers' pension crisis in Pennsylvania.

"What we're looking at are over $500 per home owner over the next five years just to pay these pension costs. We will likely see school districts on the verge of bankruptcy because, well, revenue growth is simply being outpaced by the demand from our pension systems. This is a real financial crisis here in Pennsylvania at every level of government."

Brouillette points out that most of the private sector has moved on from defined benefit plans, like the ones still in place in the schools, because they are "simply unsustainable and unaffordable.."

"Unfortunately, the public sector that relies upon taxpayer money has failed in these reforms, and of course, there's a lot of folks who benefit and profit from the status quo, and that's why this fight continues to this day in Harrisburg."

He is pushing to reform the system so that new teachers will be set up with a "401K-like" retirement system that can be seen in much of the private sector.

"It does allow for the transferability of these retirement benefits rather than forcing people to stay in government work their entire lives. It really is with the more mobile society that we have to this today and it provides reasonable retirement, and most importantly, it's affordable to the taxpayers. The costs are current; we're not promising things in the future that our kids and grandkids are going to have to try and afford."

However, there seems to be a "road block" for these plans in Governor Tom Wolf. Brouillette fears that Wolf will favor some of his union supporters from the election as opposed to signing any kind of reform.

"Hopefully, math will win out and Governor Wolf will look at the taxpayers and say, 'You know what? I gotta favor these folks over these special interests that don't want any changes to occur.' That's going to be his real challenge -- who he's going to put first, the people's interests or the special interests?"