Dark Money Political Organizations Making RoboCalls in Kentucky

Out-of-state, politically motivated “dark money” groups are now funding robocalls in Kentucky that tell citizens that they will face higher taxes if they do not support Senate Bill 1, the pension-reform bill.

“dark money” groups receive unlimited donations from corporations, individuals, and others to influence elections and legislation, but they are not required to disclose these donors. These groups are the scourge of American politics and exist solely to influence politicians and voters to support or oppose candidates and political issues, usually for their own benefit, such as Wall Street corporations seeking to push 401(k)-type products over public pensions.

These groups also give Frankfort politicians plausible deniability for the use of dirty, dishonest tricks, such as the “Save our Pensions” advocacy website that promotes SB1 or the thousands of robocalls that are now spreading false facts and fear throughout the state.

Every single retired teacher or supporter of public education in Kentucky needs to warn their family and friends that these “dark money” groups are becoming more aggressive in Kentucky and they are trying influence passage of this legislation by pitting the general public against current and retired teachers.

The fact is that Gov. Matt Bevin and supporters of SB1 continue to chastise and insult teachers because they won’t blindly accept “their” pension-reform legislation. The reality is that SB1 was negotiated in secret, without input from Kentucky’s education community and many others, and is bad legislation.

Secretive SB1 was released late in the legislative session and the bill sponsor did not release the actuarial analysis of its budgetary effect until the day of a vote on the bill. Are Kentucky’s teachers uninformed about this issue, as some of these robocalls claim, or do their years of classroom experience give them special insight into when someone is trying to pull a fast one over on them? I’m guessing the latter.

Here is where we are right now with SB1 and budget:

• The bill has been kicked back to the Senate State and Local Government Committee due to lack of substantial support in the Senate.
• The House budget still puts Retired Teachers’ Health Care Fund in jeopardy. This budget calls for funding a share of healthcare burden during the first year of the biennium but then allocates no money during the second year, which will require TRS to use in its medical fund for this purpose. This could cause the TRS medical fund to fall below the 25-percent funding threshold, which would trigger an additional contribution of one percent – read pay decrease – by teachers.

This fight is not over. We must continue to pressure our elected officials to restore full healthcare funding in the House budget and to reject SB 1. Contact Your Elected Officials or call 1-800-371-7181 today.