Raises doled out to Westmoreland retirees as pension fund nears record high
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Westmoreland County government retirees will receive a 3.4% cost-of-living raise in 2025.
The county’s retirement board on Tuesday approved the increased benefit for the 1,400 former employees who in 2024, for the first time in 13 years, were denied raises.
“We’re not supposed to give raises out every year, but until last year we have gone out of our way to do it,” said Controller Jeffrey Balzer, who, along with the three county commissioners and Treasurer Jared Squires, sits on the county’s retirement board.
Retirees were eligible for 3% raises this year, but board members punted on a potential increase, blaming the county’s struggling financial outlook.
Commissioners last December approved a $456.7 million budget that included a 32.5% hike in property taxes. Officials said nearly $19 million was to be transferred from the county’s general fund this year to ensure the pension account remained fully funded. As a result, county leaders said the additional expense associated with a raise for retirees could not be afforded.
The county’s proposed 2025 budget is expected to be unveiled late next month.
“The last time we gave out raises, it cost us $18 million,” Balzer said. “(This) year, we didn’t have the money for it.”
Retirees were given 8.1% raises in 2023, a figure that was based on the federal Consumer Price Index, which is tied to inflation figures and reflects changes in the costs of food, housing and other daily living expenses.
The 2025 raises are expected to cost taxpayers about $15 million over the next five years, according to finance director Meghan McCandless.
The commissioners and the county’s elected officials received 3.5% raises this year, which was a figure determined by the annual adjustments to the CPI. Raises for elected officials in 2025, which are mandated by a county ordinance approved in the late 1990s, have not been announced.
The county’s unionized workers — including more than 500 members of the Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare PA — ratified a three-year labor contract this year with annual raises that total about 17% through 2026.
About 400 nonunion workers received 3% raises this year.
Joe Shondelmeyer, a retired court reporter, said he expected former county employees would receive a larger raise in 2025 to account for this year’s inaction. He said the commissioners’ votes in recent months to pay out more than $200,000 to settle lawsuits against the juvenile detention center and the district attorney’s office indicated there was enough money in the budget to pay retirees a higher benefit.
“Our (retirement) fund is also making money,” Shondelmeyer said.
The retirement fund earned more than $32 million over the last three months and has more than $672 million in assets.
Fund manager Aiden Walsh of Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors told retirement board members the fund, which earns interest from a wide range of investments, is approaching its high-water mark of $690 million, which was reached at the end of 2021.