Kanjo attacks Barletta over pension plans

BILL O ’ BOYLE

boboyle@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – A day after a report was released about financially distressed municipal pension plans, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, again criticized the performance of his GOP opponent, Lou Barletta, the mayor of Hazleton – the city at the top of the distressed list.

On Monday, the Public Employee Retirement Commission released a list of pension deficits showing Hazleton as having the most distressed pension fund in Luzerne County.

The Kanjorski campaign pointed to Hazleton’s pension crisis as another example of how Barletta “continues to botch his job.”

“Makes you wonder how much more the people of Hazleton can take,” said Ed Mitchell, Kanjorski’s campaign spokesman. “They have the highest unemployment rate in the state, skyrocketing city taxes and fees, reduced services, arguably polluted sludge being dumped in their landfill, broken-down infrastructure and now, unfunded pensions for their workers. Lou is a one-man wrecking crew.”

The report lists the city’s pension fund as being $23.9 million in debt.

Shawn Kelly, Barletta’s campaign spokesman, said Kanjorski should know that cities across the country and Pennsylvania itself are facing huge public pension problems.

“Kanjorski needs to get his head out of the sand,” Kelly said.

“Kanjorski needs to explain why he cut $500 million from Medicare, why our unemployment is at an 18-year high, and why he failed at protecting us from this economic disaster,” he said.

Mitchell said the Hazleton City Water Authority also tops the list of troubled pension funds, with a $1.1 million pension deficit and a 60 percent funding ratio.

“The unemployment crisis has affected cities across the state and cannot be fully to blame for Hazleton’s high taxes and plummeting pension funds,” Mitchell said.