Treasurer Stacy Garrity cites tools to support school finances, expand unclaimed-property returns

Treasury Stacy Garrity said the Pennsylvania Treasury’s suite of financial programs and transparency tools are aimed at stabilizing school-district finances and returning unclaimed property to families and institutions.

"My job is to be the fiscal watchdog and to protect the $180,000,000,000," Garrity said in an interview on the Keystone Education Report, listing consumer-facing programs the office runs, including the PA 529 college-and-career savings plan, PA ABLE and InvestPA. "Open Book PA" is the treasury’s public transparency portal, she added, where users can track revenues, spending and state contracts.

Why it matters: Treasury-managed programs and investment policies affect local school budgets and taxpayers. Garrity said tools such as InvestPA — a money-market vehicle that lets districts pool idle cash with the state’s investments — and steps to reduce investment fees can help districts earn higher yields and lower borrowing costs.

Garrity described InvestPA’s January rate of return at about 3.87% and said the program now partners with 79 school districts; she also noted a change in management to Federated has reduced fees and improved yields. For districts with distressed finances, she highlighted the Pennsylvania School Credit Enhancement Intercept Program, which lets districts borrow using the treasury’s credit profile while the treasury intercepts payments to secure better terms.

On PSERS: Garrity, who chairs the PSERS investment committee, said the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System is about 66.6% funded and that the board’s goal is roughly 80% funding. "We're trending in the right way," she said, and credited governance changes and fee reductions — about $200 million in annual savings, she said — with improving the system’s outlook. She framed those steps as a long-term way to reduce pressure on property taxpayers.

Budget timing and bridge loans: Garrity said the state’s delayed budget in a prior year cost PSERS roughly $825 million in missed investment opportunity. To protect vulnerable providers during budget delays, the treasury established a "budget bridge" loan program to about 60 organizations — including Head Starts, pre-K providers and crisis centers — to avoid costly short-term borrowing.

Programs for students and families: Garrity outlined the PA 529 program as flexible for four-year, two-year, technical and K–12 tuition, reporting roughly $9 billion in assets across more than 380,000 accounts. She highlighted Keystone Scholars, a $100 starter deposit for babies born on or after Jan. 1, 2019, and said the program’s guaranteed-savings track preserves cost-of-college assumptions for families.

PA ABLE and eligibility changes: On PA ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience), Garrity said Pennsylvania is the fifth-largest state ABLE program, with more than 11,500 accounts and about $185 million saved. She told listeners a recent eligibility expansion that takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, raises the age of qualifying onset of a disability from 26 to 46; Garrity said that change could make millions of Americans — including many veterans — newly eligible.

Unclaimed property and automatic returns: Garrity emphasized the scale of unclaimed-property holdings and return efforts. She said the treasury returned a record about $289.5 million in one recent year and described legislation called "Pennsylvania Money Match," effective Jan. 1, 2025, that allows the treasury to automatically return unclaimed-property amounts of $500 or less. "For the first year, we returned over $50,000,000," she said, and added the office is pushing the legislature to raise the automatic-return threshold to $10,000.

Veterans and recovered items: Garrity described efforts to return military decorations recovered from abandoned safe-deposit boxes; she said the treasury has returned more than 585 decorations since she took office, including Purple Hearts and other service medals, and called that work "incredibly important."

Transparency and rainy-day funds: Garrity said the Open Book PA portal will continue to expand features and that a new investment pool for the rainy-day fund earned about $50 million more than traditional investment approaches.

Votes at a glance: Pennsylvania Money Match law — described by Garrity as a law that took effect Jan. 1, 2025, allowing automatic return of unclaimed property of $500 or less. Garrity said the bill passed unanimously; raising the threshold to $10,000 would require additional legislative changes.

What’s next: Garrity said the treasury will continue to push for greater transparency, lower fees, expanded participation in InvestPA and higher automatic-return thresholds for unclaimed property, while coordinating with PSERS and school districts on long-term funding stability.