Almost 3 million Americans, including firefighters, educators, sanitation workers, health providers, road crews, and countless other critical public employees, are subject to the devastating financial effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) laws. The GPO and WEP penalize those who have dedicated their lives to serving their communities, often in […]

Almost 3 million Americans, including firefighters, educators, sanitation workers, health providers, road crews, and countless other critical public employees, are subject to the devastating financial effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) laws. Everyone deserves a secure retirement, especially those who devoted their career to public service. The Social Security […]

Gary Harbin, Executive Secretary of TRS, addressed the 2024 Kentucky Retired Teachers Association Conference to discuss the state of our pension system.  The full video is below:

The 2024 General Assembly was good for Kentucky’s retired teachers. The biennial budget fully funded the TRS pension request and fully funded retiree health insurance as stipulated by the Shared Responsibility plan passed in 2010. This ensures that TRS will have been fully funded by the General Assembly for 1O consecutive years. House Bill 1 […]

Day 58 of the Kentucky General Assembly ended on Friday, March 29, 2024, the last day before the veto period. The General Assembly will gavel back in for the final two days of the 2024 General Assembly on Friday, April 12 and Monday April 15. Those days will see additional bills passed as well as […]

Greetings KRTA Family: Today is day 51 of the 60 day session, only 9 days remain for the 2024 General Assembly.  Those 9 remaining days are currently scheduled as March 15, 21, 22,  25,26, 27, and 28 with the last two days occurring on April 12 and 15 when they will adjourn for the year. […]

Greetings KRTA Family: The last day to file new bills for the Kentucky House of Representatives is today, February 26th, while the deadline in the Kentucky Senate is this Thursday, February 28th.   We anticipate this week will be extremely chaotic as members seek to get their bills submitted before the deadlines. As mentioned in previous […]

By Gary Harbin Reprinted from February 24, 2024 TRS Newsletter. With some frequency, I hear concerns about Kentucky’s teachers and Social Security that I want to address because some common perceptions aren’t reality. For teachers as individuals, the value of the TRS retirement benefit in almost all cases outweighs any reductions on Social Security benefits […]

Greetings KRTA Family: Another legislative week is in the history books and KRTA staff, lobbyists, and legislative volunteers remain optimistic that we will achieve all of our legislative priorities this session.  Full funding of Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) and the TRS Medical Insurance Fund appears likely.  Two of our biggest priorities – full funding of […]

Greetings KRTA Family: KRTA staff, lobbyists, and legislative volunteers continue to work diligently in Frankfort during the Kentucky General Assembly to ensure that all of our legislative priorities are met. Two of our biggest priorities — full funding of the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) and the TRS Medical Insurance Fund — appear to be heading […]

Greetings KRTA Family: As the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly continues to progress, KRTA staff, lobbyists, and legislative volunteers remain committed to making sure all of our legislative priorities are met.  We continue to follow closely three bills which contains two of our five legislative priorities – fully funding of our pension system and medical insurance […]

HB1: Appropriations for Government (Petrie, Jason) AN ACT relating to government agencies, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency. We are review this bill and will provide detailed information on education appropriations in the coming days. Appropriate General Fund moneys from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund Account in fiscal years 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026 […]

The 2023 Session of the Kentucky General Assembly passed the halfway mark this week. 286 bills have been filed in the State Senate while 594 bills have been filed in the State House of Representatives.  The new bills filed this week include many “shell” bills that could morph into anything during the final days of […]

Dear KRTA Members: There is misleading information circulating around social media concerning TRS investments in the Russian Bank Sberbank.  Please see the following statement issued by TRS.   MARCH 4, 2022 FRANKFORT, Ky. – Social media statements about the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Kentucky (TRS) being the second-largest shareholder in Sberbank are completely […]

Tim Abrams, Executive Director During our recent visit to Western Kentucky, we were able to meet with several KRTA members who lost their homes to the tornado on December 10.  Each of them shared harrowing stories of surviving the storms and how fortunate they feel to be alive today.     The devastation and need we witnessed […]

FRANKFORT – The Kentucky Retired Teachers Association (KRTA) and its members have donated $53,000 to the people and communities impacted by the devastating tornadoes that cut a destructive path through Western Kentucky on Dec. 10. A $36,000 check to the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund was recently presented to Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman by […]

Legislative Update – January 11, 2022 The video posted above illustrates our 2022 legislative priorities as well as information that you will need to stay actively engaged during the 2022 legislative session.  I encourage everyone to watch this video. The 2022 General Assembly completed its 7th day of the 60-day session today.  The General Assembly […]

OP-ED by William Kelley, KRTA President published in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Over the years, we have heard a lot of rhetoric from some lawmakers about the affordability and sustainability of the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). I’m guessing we’ll probably hear a lot more political rhetoric after a new experience study, commissioned by TRS, adjusted […]

We sat down with Gary Harbin, Executive Secretary from TRS to discuss the recently released actuary experience study and board recommendations.

Call 1-800-372-7181 or visit www.teachfrankfort.org and send an email to your elected officials asking them to:   Restore full STATUTORY funding to the TRS Medical Insurance Fund as promised by the 2010 Shared Responsibility Law.  Once again, Frankfort Politicians are trying to break their promise to Kentucky’s Retired Teachers. HB192 – the House Budget Bill – […]

  Call your elected official at 1-800-372-7181 or simply click the Contact Your Elected Officials button.  Tell your elected officials to fully fund the statutory obligation to the TRS Medical Insurance fund.   As you know, we have been carefully tracking the House Budget Bill (HB192 / HCS1) to make sure our legislative priorities are […]

Published by the National Institute On Retirement Security (NIRS) Click here to read Pension Impact on Kentucky’s Economy WASHINGTON, D.C., January 6, 2021 – A new report finds that economic gains attributable to private and public sector defined benefit (DB) pensions in the U.S. are substantial. Retiree spending of pension benefits in 2018 generated $1.3 trillion […]

LOUISVILLE – The Kentucky Retired Teachers Association (KRTA) has released its legislative priorities for the 2021 Kentucky General Assembly regular session that begins the first week of January. “Our priorities have not changed from last year,” said KRTA Executive Director Tim Abrams. “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic possibly restricting access to the State Capitol and […]

As you know, the 2021 legislative session is going to most likely be much different than in past years.  COVID-19 concerns could keep the Capitol and Capitol Annex closed off to the general public including our government relations representatives.  We must be adapt and let our elected officials know that Kentucky’s Retired Teachers matter.  With […]

The Kentucky Retired Teachers Association announced its 2021 legislative priorities for the upcoming session starting in January.   Please watch this short video from Tim Abrams, Executive Director of the KRTA, to hear our priorities and a brief explanation. Simply by clicking each link below, you’ll be able to educate yourself about each priority. 2021 Legislative […]

It is critical that you understand all of your voting options.  Visit www.govoteky.com and www.aarp.org/kyvotes to learn all of your voting options. Deadline to Register:        Monday, October 5th Deadline to Request Absentee / Ballot by Mail:     Friday, October 9th Early Voting Begins:       Tuesday, October 13th General Election:      […]

Senate District 7 – Open Seat Joe Graviss (D)   Adrienne Southworth (R)   State Senate District 11 John Schickel (R) Incumbent   Jim Fiorelli (D) Challenger   State Senate District 17 Damon Thayer (R) Incumbent   Jason Stroude (D) Challenger   State Senate District 23 Ryan Olexia (D) Challenger   Chris McDaniel (R) Incumbent […]

  House District 8 Pam Dossett (D) Candidate Walker Thomas (R) Incumbent No Video Submitted. House District 11   Rob Wiederstein (D) Incumbent   Jonathan Dixon (R) Challenger No Video Submitted   House District 12   Jim Gooch (R) Incumbent     Art McLaughlin (D) Challenger No Video Submitted   House District 63   Kim […]

National Institute on Retirement Security – 2/8/2018 (reprinted) Click here to view the full article Palm Beach Town Council Reinstated Pension Plan After Unsuccessful and Costly Shift to 401(k) Accounts   WASHINGTON, D.C., February 8, 2018 – A new case study examines the impacts of the 2012 actions of the Town of Palm Beach to close its […]