State Treasurer Beth Pearce, a Democrat, and Wendy Wilton, Rutland city treasurer and GOP candidate for treasurer, had their most vociferous debate yet on WDEV’s The Mark Johnson Show Monday.
In previous debates, Pearce has largely played defense as Wilton has lobbed accusations that the treasurer has mismanaged overtime pay for employees in her office.
This time, it was the state treasurer who caught her Republican rival off guard. Pearce told Johnson and the WDEV audience that the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank put the city of Rutland on a watch list in June. The bank cited the city’s unfunded pension liability as the primary reason for the designation. That fact was news to Wilton, who later in an interview downplayed the importance of the list and concerns about the city’s pension fund.
Wilton has repeatedly alleged that Pearce hasn’t done enough to stabilize the state’s pension fund. The state has a triple A bond rating.
Listen to the debate.
The next treasurer’s debate is on Vermont Public Radio this Friday.
