PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County executive is firing back at the district attorney over comments about the financially troubled pension fund for county employees.
County Executive Sara Innamorato says she’s taking this very seriously and that the retirement board has been working on a plan to right the pension fund.
She accused DA Stephen Zappala of playing political theater.
“What you have is a district attorney who put out a four-page press release that didn’t say anything new that hasn’t been public information,” Innamorato said.
Last week, Zappala sent out a blistering news release claiming poor oversight and political decisions have worsened the pension fund.
Zappala called for independent oversight of the system’s $1.4 billion unfunded liability.
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Innamorato is defending her efforts to address the financial instability and questioning why the DA waited until now to speak out.
“He’s someone who sat in office for more than two decades. I’ve been here for two and a half years and we have done a tremendous amount of work to increase the transparency and accountability of the pension board,” Innamorato said.
Two years ago, Zappala sued the county and retirement board alleging that decades of underfunding and risky investments created the pension fund problems.
The back and forth between Zappala and Innamorato comes after the retirement board recently released a sobering report that the fund will become insolvent by 2043, blaming decades of inadequate funding and that an additional $100 million every year for two decades is needed to fix it. The report also suggests potential revenue sources, including a payroll tax, sales tax or property tax.
Innamorato says she’s working on a fix.
“We have a new pension board that was set at the beginning of my administration, and we have taken this very seriously. We have brought in experts to analyze the pension, see where we are at, see how we got here, and see how we actually solve it moving forward, not just participating in political theater.”
Innamorato says the board is working on a plan and she indicated on Thursday that it involves reaching out to lawmakers in Harrisburg as well.
She did not elaborate on that.
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