FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Gov. Matt Bevin is urging current and retired state workers in Kentucky to pressure lawmakers to act on revamping one of the nation’s worst-funded public pension plans.
Bevin said in a four-minute video Saturday night that if structural changes aren’t made, the teachers’ retirement system will likely run out of money in 12 to 15 years.
The plan to overhaul Kentucky’s public pension systems, which has stalled in the Senate, has angered some teachers and public workers, prompting a protest by more than a thousand people at the Capitol last week.
In a radio interview last week, the Republican governor called teachers “selfish,” which prompted a rebuke from GOP leaders.
In his video, Bevin told workers that “you should be very concerned. I’m asking you please, reach out to your legislators and say ’don’t allow this to fail on our watch. Don’t kick this down the road one more year.’ We do need to fully fund it, but we also have to make sure that we’re not throwing money into a bottomless pit. Structural change must happen.”
The measure would cut benefits for some retired teachers while making structural changes some lawmakers say are necessary to save the retirement system from collapse. Supporters tout it as a way to reap an estimated $3.2 billion in taxpayer savings over the next 20 years.
Most of the bill’s savings would come from temporary cuts to the annual cost-of-living raises for retired teachers, who are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits. The raises would be restored once the system is 90 percent funded. Currently, the system is 56 percent funded.
Also, all newly hired teachers hired would be placed in a new retirement plan that shifts most of the risk from the state to the employees.
Kentucky is at least $41 billion short of what it needs to pay retirement benefits over the next 30 years. Lawmakers have committed to putting $3.3 billion into the pension system over the next two years to keep it solvent, prompting plans for budget cuts across most state agencies.
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The pension overhaul bill is Senate Bill 1.
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