• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy

   

  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Events
  • Job Opportunities
  • Donate

Research That Works for Kentucky

  • Topics
    • Budget & Tax
    • Criminal Justice
    • Economic Security
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Jobs & The Economy
  • Types
    • News
    • Op-Ed
    • Research

   

  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Events
  • Job Opportunities
  • Donate

Copyright © 2021 KyPolicy Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Sitemap

Press Release

Statement on Pension Special Session

Jason Bailey | December 17, 2018

Kentucky has no need to spend public dollars on a hastily-called special session to cut public employee pensions. Retirement benefits were already reduced in 2003, 2008, 2010 and 2013 and are being undermined by the lack of employee raises. More cuts will further reduce retirement security and harm our ability to attract and retain qualified teachers and public employees.

As shown in the actuarial analysis to SB 151, the ideas on the table do not make a difference in the financial health of the systems. That same analysis shows the plans will improve over time through steady funding. Responsible funding resumed in 2015 for the state employee plans and in 2017 for the teacher plans, and it is already making a difference — plans are seeing growth in assets and are on the track to better financial health. Claims of looming insolvency are patently false.

More On Budget & Tax: Governor’s Budget Increases Funding for Relief and Reinvestment

Instead of helping, SB 151 contains measures that would widen inequality between rich and poor school districts, add unnecessary costs to the state budget in the short term, and harm the KERS non-hazardous system through a defined contribution option that diverts resources from that plan.

The special session sends Kentucky back down into the sewers. Instead, we need an open conversation rooted in the facts and a simple commitment to a funding plan that will improve the systems’ financial health over time.

See our analysis of SB 151 here. 

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail

Primary Sidebar

Get KyPolicy news updates in your inbox

Sign Up

Sidebar

Perspectives

Kentucky Must Remove the Roadblocks to Unemployment Insurance — Our Most Important Economic Stabilizer

Many Kentuckians Face Hunger and Hardship This Thanksgiving. They Need Relief.

Kentucky Lives and Livelihoods Are on the Line with Supreme Court Challenge to ACA

Letter to Governor Beshear: Priorities for Use of Remaining Coronavirus Relief Fund Monies

Congress Can’t Go Home Without Passing a Strong Aid Package

Other Budget & Tax Items

Press Release

Beshear Makes Another Bid to Raise Teacher Salaries, Boost Education Funding in Budget

Press Release

With Budget Talks Coming, Report Suggests New Revenue Is Needed in Kentucky

Press Release

The Economic State of the State

Ky. Policy

Footer

Research that works for Kentucky

433 Chestnut Street, Berea, KY 40403

Phone: 859-756-4605

General information and inquiries: info@kypolicy.org

   

Help us make the facts free and accessible to everyone. That’s how Kentucky will thrive.

Donate

  • Topics
    • Budget & Tax
    • Criminal Justice
    • Economic Security
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Jobs & The Economy
  • Work
    • News
    • Op-Ed
    • Research
  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Contact

Get KyPolicy news updates in your inbox

Sign Up

Copyright © 2021 KyPolicy Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Sitemap

made by P&P
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you consent to the use of cookies.OkPrivacy policy