State retirees group calls on General Assembly to address pension funding
To the Editor:
As a Kentucky Retirement Systems stakeholder, I am gratified by Gov. Matt Bevin’s recognition of the existential threat to the Kentucky Employees and State Police pension plans. His General Fund budget proposal for the upcoming two fiscal years allocates revenue above the full employer 
contribution to begin addressing this threat.
The advocacy group Kentucky Government Retirees has communicated regularly with legislators over the past several months seeking support for our concept called “ARC-plus,” that is, the full actuarially required contribution plus additional revenue to attack the pension funds’ alarming asset depletion. The response has been underwhelming. Most General Assembly members have said they will commit only to paying the full employer contribution.
We are not public-finance policy experts, so we have no firm position on how Frankfort decision makers find more money. But we do expect legislators to either adopt Gov. Bevin’s ARC-plus proposal or pass another funding solution at least comparable in scope. Failure to do so will further jeopardize pension plans that provide benefits for tens of thousands of Kentuckians.
Jim Carroll
Co-founder, Kentucky Government Retirees
Frankfort
