Accomplishments

As state treasurer, Rob McCord has made his office a profit center for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Using his twenty-plus years of business leadership experience and expertise, McCord has significantly improved investment returns while making his office run more efficiently. The result is improved pension security for seniors, better access to higher education funding for students, and savings for Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Improved Returns for Pennsylvania

The state treasurer’s office has generated $1.4 billion in revenue for the state through its investment strategies since January 2009. That’s almost equivalent to the $1.5 billion the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax generated in FYs 09-10 and 10-11 combined!

The PA 529 College Savings Program was 70% funded in March 2009 ($400 million deficit) and today, it is better than 98% funded.

The 529 program has enjoyed strong investment returns (13.6% in FY 09-10 vs. an actuarial assumption of 8.25%), an increase in contributions (15.5% higher in FY 10-11 vs. FY 08-09), and growth in new accounts (18,000 more accounts today than in FY 08-09).

And the Bureau of Unclaimed Property alone has generated more than $316 million for the General Fund since January 2009.

The bureau has increased collections, increased disbursements, and increased the net revenue for the General Fund by $316 million.

Improved Efficiency

Treasury’s General Government Operations budget is $33.4 million in FY 11-12, down from approximately $42.8 million in FY 08-09 (22% less)

The office has reduced its workforce by 19% from 507 employees in 2009 to 409 today. It has also reduced the size of its automobile fleet by 22%.

In addition, by avoiding expensive leases and reducing postage costs, the treasurer’s office saved the state $2.7 million and a private sector audit of the treasury’s complex operation identified over $17 million worth of savings and benefits in FY 09-10.

The treasury’s Fiscal Review Bureau refined and improved the Personal Income Tax auditing process so the office is identifying and preventing more erroneous refunds while doing fewer time-intensive audits.

In fact, the bureau helped treasury cut its number of audits 65% from 63,940 in FY 08-09 to 22,163 in FY 10-11 while increasing savings 96% from $5.78 million in FY 08-09 to $11.34 million in FY 10-11

And it was done with fewer people working nearly 1,300 fewer hours of overtime – that’s a 73% reduction in overtime hours!

Improved Security for Seniors

The McCord Treasury is working to help seniors who live on fixed incomes enjoy a more secure retirement through making sound investments that help to limit property tax increases, putting money back into seniors’ wallets, or providing resources that can guide older residents through difficult financial decisions.

Through his work on the boards of Pennsylvania’s two largest public pension funds – SERS and PSERS – Treasurer McCord has advocated for investments and strategies that boost returns, limit property tax increases at school districts, and provide retirement income for about 310,000 retirees and beneficiaries.

Treasurer McCord launched RetirePA (www.retirepa.com) – an initiative to help educate Pennsylvanians on the importance of saving for retirement.  RetirePA’s website offers tips, tools and other resources to help get your financial house in order so you can plan, save and, ultimately, retire with financial security.

Treasurer McCord laid out a plan for casinos to start repaying nearly $64 million in loans from the Property Tax Relief Fund sooner than originally planned in order to ensure money was available to trigger property tax relief payments for seniors on time.

Treasury’s unclaimed property program has put hundreds of millions of dollars back into the pockets of rightful owners. Treasurer McCord’s administration has proactively worked to identify property that belongs to seniors. Each year, Treasury matches names in the state’s prescription drug assistance program (PACE) with the department’s database of those owed unclaimed property.

Scranton Times-Tribune (Oct. 30, 2008):

Mr. McCord…is more likely to be innovative in establishing greater security and more publicly beneficial use of Pennsylvania’s money.

Philadelphia Inquirer (Oct. 08, 2012):

McCord’s intimate knowledge of investment strategies is helping the state keep its pension funds solvent. He also has made the state’s college savings program one of the best run in the nation.