By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Kentucky lawmakers are on a three-day weekend with the pension issue still unresolved.
The General Assembly will not be in session Monday in observance of Presidents’ Day.
Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said the long-awaited overhaul of the state’s pension system could be introduced upon their return to Frankfort on Tuesday.
Sen. Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown
Thayer expressed confidence the measure will be approved.
“Senate and House Republican leaders have been working very hard on a bill that I think can pass and put us on a path to sustainability,” he said. “It’s not going to go as far as I would like it to go, but I believe it’s a very good bill.”
Thayer said Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, have kept Gov. Matt Bevin in the loop on changes that have been made to the bill.
“I think the governor recognizes that it will put us on a path to sustainability and will reduce the risk on the taxpayers, while continuing to provide a pension system for our current employees and retirees that keeps the promises made to them in the inviolable contract, while designing a new system for future employees that will ensure a good pension for them as well,” Thayer said.
How the bill will be unveiled has yet to be decided.
“Let’s just say the news will be made in such a way that everyone will know about it,” he said.
Stivers said earlier this week the bill is receiving final edits by legislative staffers.
Stivers said Wednesday a mandatory 401(k)-like plan would not be a part of the legislation. He said lawmakers are also looking at giving new teachers a choice of various plans.
Kentucky’s public pension plans are among the most underfunded in the nation, with estimates ranging from $40 billion to $80 billion.
