Cris Ritchie | Hazard Herald
Perry County Judge-Executive Denny Ray Noble (left), along with Sen. Brandon Smith, Rep. Fitz Steele, and Letcher County Judge-Executive Jim Ward, appeared at a town hall meeting in Hazard last week to discuss pension reform. Noble several other state legislators were invited.
HAZARD – With a reported $33 billion in unfunded liability, pension reform promises to be the major issue during this session of the Kentucky General Assembly. It was also the topic of a town hall meeting in Hazard last week.
Perry County Judge-Executive Denny Ray Noble called the meeting at the Hal Rogers Forum in Hazard on Friday, where he told an audience of current and retired state workers if something isn’t done to shore up the Kentucky Retirement System (KRS), many state, county, and city employees may not have a retirement to look forward to.
“If we don’t do something, in my opinion, we’ve lost our retirement,” Noble said. “And then, what’s the future for our kids?”
Pension reform isn’t a new issue in Kentucky. A bi-partisan commission was formed this past summer to formulate recommendations on how state lawmakers can best address Kentucky’s retirement shortfall. Those recommendations make up Senate Bill 2, which was approved in the state Senate last week and is currently being considered in the House State Government Committee.
Senate Bill 2 would, if passed without amendments, reform the state’s pension system by first offering all new state employees a hybrid cash balance plan. Under the plan, all employees who begin participating in the KRS after July 1 would be guaranteed a 4 percent annual return on contributions. Cost-of-living increases would also be eliminated for those employees. Additionally, the state would be required to pay its full contribution to the retirement system beginning July 1, 2014. At present, the system has less than half the funds needed.
With fewer than 20 working days left in this session of the General Assembly, Rep. Fitz Steele predicted drastic cuts on the state level and a special session later this year. He added that the pension issue started well before he took office, but it’s one this legislature will need to fix now.
“There’s going to be drastic cuts because we have to put this money back into the retirement fund because you all have worked for it,” Steele told an audience Friday evening. “That’s your money. You paid for it, you’ve been taxed for it.”
Republican state Sen. Brandon Smith, the Senate majority whip, said the pension shortfall is the result of a legislature from years ago that failed to fully fund the KRS, and a system that guaranteed an investment growth rate that was stifled when the economy faltered.
Senate Bill 2, he added, simply adopts recommendations made by the bi-partisan commission put together this past summer, but it’s also the legislature’s only shot at fixing this problem during the current session.
The legislation is not perfect and he doesn’t like everything that’s currently in it, Smith said, though it will likely see some changes in the Democratically-controlled House before it comes back to the Senate for approval.
“I can promise you right now in this room, that (House Speaker) Greg Stumbo is over there making a lot of changes to it,” Smith said on Friday. “He’s going to tweak it, that’s the way the process works.”
Last week, Speaker Stumbo expressed concern that while Senate Bill 2 requires the KRS to be fully funded, it fails to detail a funding source. New sources, such as a tax hike on cigarettes or expanded gambling, could help shore up the pension shortfall, he added.
Rep. Steele said the House could take up the pension bill sometime this week. The General Assembly will adjourn its regular session on March 26.
Perry County Executive Denny Ray "Raptor" Noble called a townhall meeting with Fitz Steele and Brandon Smith-better known as "The Three Amigos" to discuss pension reform. Topics discussed were county layoffs, decrease in salaries, furloughs, decreased retirement benefits----OH! Excuse me, I got that confused. The topic was shoring up 33 Billion in unfunded pension by raising taxes. A tax hike on cigarettes or expanded gambling is a probable solution. Hope you chain smoke while you gamble away your life savings. They will need a lot to come up with the 33 Billion.
Coal mines are shutting down left and right; local businesses are closing, laying off, cutting hours for managers and employees; large hospitals laying off up to 250 nurses at a time; and no new hiring due to economic uncertainty and Obama Care. But county employees received their 3% cost of living raise to already bloated salaries. By the way this is fact-you have the right to know their salaries through the Kentucky Open Records Act. Find out for yourselves-this is a challenge!
This could be the making of a new TV reality show. Perhaps a combination of "Honey Boo Boo and the Biggest Loser." As many politicians have said in the past, lets go ahead and pass a bill and then see what is in it. Or how about keep spending coal severance tax that no longer exists. That has been the solutions in previous months. Reality might be a key word for these three individuals-one weekly newspaper article states we are in surplus, then the next week we are in need of shoring up. It is always easier to spend someone elses money. Live within your means as people do in their own households. Between the welfare people and the politicians, private sector workers will not survive. According to the internet, the definition of shoring up is to prop up or support something. Taxpayers are tired of supporting everyone else, it is time for a change. Accountability for politicians and welfare recipients is a must!