Brandon McGinley

“A chronic concern for the County is an underfunded pension liability.” This exact sentence has appeared in every Popular Annual Financial Report produced by the Allegheny County Controller's Office since 2019.

I cut my teeth in politics around Pittsburgh during the Obama years, in particular by working for then-state House Majority Leader Mike Turzai from the North Hills.

Pittsburgh has been known as a cradle of industrialists, of quarterbacks and of robots. But for a period of several years beginning about a decade ago, it also became a nursery for left-wing politicos.

PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania have been known as a cradle of industrialists, of quarterbacks and of robots. But for a period of several years beginning about a decade ago, it also became a nursery for left-wing politicos. Several of the progressive candidates who burst onto the scene in those years have become fixtures in Western Pennsylvania politics, including Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, both of whom won state House races in...

Fifteen years ago, the City of Pittsburgh's pension system was just as underfunded as Allegheny County's is today.

In an obituary in “The Atlantic” for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Robert Fontaine relates the following quotation from the late Republican from South Carolina:

PITTSBURGH (TNS) — In an obituary in The Atlantic for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Robert Fontaine relates the following quotation from the late Republican from South Carolina: “When I was first elected to the House, I looked for the they. They who run things. They who know how things really work. They who know what they are doing. But I couldn’t find the they. … I went to the Senate. But...

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has a higher net approval rating among Republicans — and a much worse net approval rating among Democrats — than his GOP colleague, U.S.

PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has a higher net approval rating among Republicans — and a much worse net approval rating among Democrats — than his GOP colleague, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick. That’s according to last week’s Quinnipiac University poll, and it’s all you need to know to get that this is a very weird moment in Pennsylvania politics. The Fetterman case also points to an apparent paradox in American politics more generally. People overwhelmingly express dissatisfaction with the political system broadly, and with...

The woeful underfunding of the Allegheny County pension system is due in part to the chronic underperformance of the system's investments.