From the National Constitution Center to the United Nations, Joe has never stopped looking for new ways to solve old problems. Innovation, creativity, and good old-fashioned hard work are often just what we need to tackle longstanding challenges. Joe will bring the same approach to the treasurer’s office.
Here are just a few ideas at the center of Joe’s campaign. Come back regularly to read new ideas he’s bringing to the conversation.
Keystone Savings
Joe Torsella will work to establish automatic college or vocational training savings accounts for every child born in Pennsylvania, an initiative that can increase access to higher education, improve graduation rates, foster lifelong financial literacy and wealth-building, and help to bridge our growing income gap.
The Torsella Plan – Universal College Savings Accounts
Transparency and Integrity
As our state treasurer, Pennsylvania’s watchdog for fiscal integrity, Joe will open the books in the state, empowering every citizen to act as auditor. Under Joe’s direction, the treasury will set the bar nationally as a leader in integrity and transparency.
Read Joe’s transparency proposals here.
Pennsylvania Sunshine Checkbook
For transparency to matter, Pennsylvania needs to invest in Open Data. Joe will leverage technology and citizen engagement to expand and enrich access to state government information, ensuring that Pennsylvanians know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.
Learn more about the Pennsylvania Sunshine Checkbook here.
Pennsylvania Individual Retirement Accounts
Joe is calling for Pennsylvania state government to address the retirement insecurity crisis by creating portable, individual retirement accounts for the 2 million Pennsylvania private sector workers with no access to workplace retirement plans. As Treasurer, Joe would advocate for a “PA-IRA” program modeled on other states that have enabled automatic payroll deduction, with opt-out provisions, of retirement savings for private sector employees. Such plans do not require employer contributions, or create new liabilities for the state – they simply provide employees in workplaces with no 401K or pension plans the ability to have a percentage of their pay automatically directed to a retirement account. Workers’ savings are typically invested in simple, low-fee funds, administered by a public entity.
Learn more about the Pennsylvania Individual Retirement Accounts here.