FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rep. John McGinnis (814) 942-1028
Rep. John McGinnis Publishes Book on Pennsylvania’s Pension Crisis
Treatise exposes dire consequences of politicians’ self-serving behavior
HOMETOWN, PA (Nov. 9, 2015) — Rep. John McGinnis (R-Blair County) announces today the publication of his book on the Pennsylvania pension crisis: Future Forsaken: PENnscam and the Demise of the Commonwealth.
In Future Forsaken, McGinnis presents an insider’s view of the self-serving behavior of politicians that has produced multi-million dollar pensions for themselves while heaping billions of dollars of debt upon future Pennsylvanians. “Governors, legislators, bureaucrats, and special interest groups push their own interests at the expense of current and future taxpayers,” he says. “They not only continually conceal the true level of debt being accrued with accounting methods unresponsive to market values, but also make severely inadequate payments into the pension systems year after year.”
McGinnis is likely the legislature’s best financial expert with a Ph.D. in finance as well as having earned the designation of CFA® (Chartered Financial Analyst). He presents a stark future for the commonwealth and its taxpayers as a result of public pension debt. “The recent credit downgrades and state budgeting woes are just the beginning,” he warns. According to McGinnis, the assets of the state pension plans are on a path to be fully depleted in 15 years and when that happens, nearly half the state’s general fund will be going to pay retirees, leaving the budget for education and all other government services crippled.
“The window to fix the problem is quickly closing, and if we do not act urgently and decisively there will be massive and irreversible economic damage done to the future of Pennsylvania,” McGinnis says.
The book lays out a three part solution, the most important part of which won’t be easy. “Significantly more funding is necessary, and sooner not later, either through redirecting current revenues or through new revenues or a combination of the two,” he says. “Legislation must also be enacted to put new public sector employees into a pure defined-contribution plan as is typical for folks in the private sector. Finally, better management of the pension fund investments will save the commonwealth billions of dollars every year.”
Print copies of Future Forsaken can be ordered at Amazon.com. It will also be available as an i-book and is viewable and downloadable online at no cost as a PDF at www.johndmcginnis.com/futureforsaken.pdf.
To comply with the legislature’s code of ethics and purely as a service to the discussion of public policy, McGinnis will not receive any payments from the publication of his book. “It required a significant amount of time and effort, but the whole purpose of writing this book is to inform the public and motivate good public policy.”
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