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BELLEFONTE -- During this week's Centre County Commissioners meeting, Resolution 10 of 2023 was adopted concerning the partnership with the Pennsylvania Treasury Department in order to offer county employees the ability to contribute to a PA 529 College and Career Savings Program.
PA 529 plans are intended to help families save for college and career educations for their loved ones. The plan allows for funds to be used at any qualified educational institution, from K-12 to college and even career training programs.
Steve Shope, a representative with the PA Treasury, was in attendance to speak about the program itself and how it will benefit county employees for decades to come. He began his speech by talking about Pennsylvania history.
"When the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, set out to develop this colony he proclaimed that it was going to be a holy experiment. It was a holy experiment because no one had ever seen a frame of government like this before -- (it) was dedicated to peace, religious freedom and civil liberties. He firmly believed that this could be a peaceful and prosperous nation," said Shope.
He continued to speak about Penn's beliefs, indicating that the founder, "believed that in order to be successful in achieving and maintaining all of those things, we would have to be successful in the education of our youth."
According to Shope, at the time, education was largely considered a function of the home or church; a family with means would be able to have better education opportunities, and if you were part of certain religious persuasions you fared better educationally.
"He knew that this was going to be something different because he was welcoming diversity into Pennsylvania," said Shope. "He knew that with that level of diversity that the only way to achieve education across the board would be if the state insisted on it. When he wrote in 1682 the fundamental laws of the province of Pennsylvania, he wrote that all people having children shall require them to learn to read and write, and at the age of 12 years old they should learn a valuable skill or trade. That valuable skill or trade in today's vernacular would be a post secondary education."
Shope spoke about research done in Pennsylvania that indicates post secondary education has many obstacles which are greater in rural communities; he also said that each child that has a post secondary education savings account is three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate.
"Through data we also know that people are more likely to know about this (and) participate in this if it's offered by their employers. The treasury commends the Centre County Commissioners for their leadership and decisive action. We hope that other employers in Centre County and throughout rural Pennsylvania will follow your lead in this," said Shope.
Educational materials on the program will be handed out to employees on how to proceed, if interested.
The PA 529 program also allows for tax benefits.
"You can deposit up to $17,000 a year into a PA 529 and receive a state tax break on that $17,000. So you will pay no state taxes on that first $17,000, that's each year," said Shope.
"There is no shortage of college savings programs out there, but PA 529s are created under the IRS code 529 and are created to be accessible to absolutely anyone. Someone can set one up on our website in a matter of minutes. There are two plans within the 529 -- one is a guaranteed savings plan and the other is an investment plan. If you choose the guaranteed savings plan, we guarantee that your money is going to grow atleast at the rate that tuition will increase... You're using today's money to pay for whatever tomorrow's college expense is."
Kristen Simkins, Centre County's Director of Human Resources, said, "We plan to begin offering this to the employees this summer. Employees will be able to go onto the PA Treasury site and set up an account for a child or family member. We will automatically then deduct it from their paycheck for them. They don't have to go to their bank and set up a separate account."
According to Shope, each state sets their fees and Pennsylvania is celebrated as being one of the best versions of the 529 plan in the country.
"Restrictions and fees have been absolutely either eliminated or minimized in a way that I don't think any other state is doing," said Shope.
The PA 529 Program is available as a supplementary benefit to any employer who is interested.
In other news, the commissioners have declared August 2023 as Gastroparesis Awareness Month in Centre County. Gastroparesis is a disorder that slows or stops the movement of food from your stomach to your small intestine, despite there being no blockage. Around five million people in the US have this disorder, and there is no known cure.