Treasurer McCord: Bond Rating Drop Another Sign of Bad Corbett Economy

Administration policies are failing to address Pennsylvania fiscal problems

Harrisburg – State Treasurer Rob McCord made the following comments today regarding Fitch’s downgrade of Pennsylvania general obligation bonds:

“The downgrade of Pennsylvania’s bond rating today by Fitch is one more indicator of the failure of Corbett administration economic policies.

“In dropping the state from AA-plus to an AA rating for general obligation bonds Tuesday, Fitch cited the unfunded liability of the state’s two major pension systems, the structural imbalance of the budget, and the lack of adequate budgetary reserves. Make no mistake about it: those critiques are a direct result of this administration’s wrongheaded policies.

“The fact is, Governor Corbett offered a pension proposal to the legislature that would have would have increased, not decreased, the unfunded pension liability over the next five years – and continued the misguided policy of underfunding our pension systems. Further, key components of his solution were likely to be declared unconstitutional. In short, that pension proposal was nothing but a blatant attempt to kick the can down the road. 

“Pennsylvania has a structural budget imbalance today because the governor stubbornly insists on protecting special interests. Instead, he should plug loopholes and work with leaders from both parties provide for true public investments that would generate strong financial returns while creating jobs. If the Governor – and the Legislature that is run by his same party – had passed a transportation plan, we could be putting tens of thousands of people to work rebuilding our infrastructure and improving our economy. Instead, this Governor focused on killing jobs by outsourcing the most efficient and lucrative parts of state government, like the Lottery system.”

For more information, visit www.patreasury.gov.

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Media contact: Gary Tuma, 717-787-2465 or gtuma@patreasury.gov

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