In Harrisburg, one-man vigil calls attention to pension debt

HARRISBURG - On any given day, hordes of state Capitol visitors pass Barry Shutt.

The 68-year-old Harrisburg-area resident with bifocals and white, wispy hair sits quietly in a lawn chair outside the statehouse cafeteria.

Next to him rests what he calls the "Doomsday clock," one showing the ever-growing total of the state's pension debt - adding $158 each second, according to calculations Shutt said he received from two pension experts.

For nearly two years, the retired state employee and Army veteran has maintained his one-man vigil a few days a week to lobby against a state pension system that he says has reached $66 billion in 15 years - and provides even him with generous retirement benefits.

But unlike the well-paid lobbyists who pass his post on their way to lunch, Shutt makes his case for hours, without pay, because he says he cares about the state's fiscal health and the effect the growing debt could have on future generations.

"My grandchildren and your children and grandchildren shouldn't have to pay for the mistakes this generation created," Shutt said.

A onetime director of the Bureau of Food Distribution for the Department of Agriculture, Shutt is not a stranger to the people in power. He has talked with officials, and even had a front-row seat at Gov. Wolf's news conferences.

"He is a very thoughtful person," Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan said. "He has an aim and is carrying it out in the best way he can as a citizen and former state employee."

Shutt, who retired in 2007, said the legislature and Wolf should fix what he calls a broken system that has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in debt because of years of bad decision-making that have made benefits too generous and, ultimately, unsustainable. He calls lobbyists "ants," and likens the House and Senate to Bonnie and Clyde, with taxpayers their bank.

"Just because Bonnie and Clyde stole from the bank and gave us some doesn't make what we have right," Shutt said.

His reform mission isn't unfounded. Last year, Pennsylvania's pension funds for state and public school employees were deemed the second most underfunded in the country, after only New Jersey's, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators.

Many elected officials agree that pension system changes are necessary, and the issue has been front and center in budget talks for five years. Former Gov. Tom Corbett once called pensions "the Pac-Man of the budget," eating up an ever-growing portion of state revenue.

But efforts to rein in the skyrocketing cost of public pensions have fallen victim to politics. Last year, a tentative deal on a plan that would have placed new state workers and public school employees into a hybrid pension system collapsed at the eleventh hour, along with a pact on the state budget.

Shutt's advocacy started in the fall of 2014, when, with a push from his wife, he trekked to the steps of then-Gov. Corbett's residence, a mile from the Capitol, hauling a poster that said: "Pension Reform? Roll it back."

He later moved his campaign inside the Capitol, where he can encounter more people. And he has added props to his vigil, including the clock, posters, and a life-size mannequin dressed in a toga.

Shutt at times covers the mannequin's face with images of Wolf or such legislators as House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana). He likens top public officials to wealthy, Roman patricians ruling the plebs - in this case, taxpayers. (Hence the toga.)

"When you talk to reps, and I've talked to about 80 of them, you get the impression that they think they're better than the people who sent them here," he said last week.

He pointed to a 2001 bill that increased their pension benefits and reduced the vesting period from 10 to five years. That measure also made state employee pensions more generous.

Two stock market tumbles later, the weight of the unfunded liabilities became a fiscal noose. In 2010, the assembly rescinded some of the 2001 benefits.

Shutt thinks more can be done. His solutions include taxing retiree benefits, cutting subsidies to Pennsylvania's horse-racing industry, and increasing the personal income tax by 0.5 percent for those above low-income status.

However, his ultimate solution rests with Pennsylvanians ending what he calls their greedy behavior. Shutt said too many people come to the Capitol seeking funding at the expense of others, especially when most oppose the tax increases needed to generate the revenue.

"This weekend, we celebrated the Greatest Generation for the sacrifices they made," he said a day after Memorial Day. "We are now living in the Greediest Generation that says 'Give me mine, I don't care about my neighbor.' "

With a tone of defeat, Shutt said he's not sure how much longer he will keep trekking to the Capitol. He said he may try to stick it out through one last legislative session before calling it quits, which would put his campaign at roughly 1,000 days.

"I don't know what headway I'm making. You do it, you try to educate people," he said. "But when you beat your head against a brick wall for so long, it feels so good when you stop."

crmossbrook@gmail.com

@CarleyMossbrook