The second part of the 2019 legislative session began on Feb. 2 and the first week of the session ended on Friday afternoon. Just like every year, legislators have filed hundreds of bills that both houses will consider. KRTA will continue to focus on our core mission as an organization, which is to look out for the welfare of Kentucky’s retired educators.
On Tuesday, Feb. 5, the Public Pensions Work Group heard testimony from several constituency groups who are part of the Kentucky’s public retirement systems. A full list of the groups that testified last week, and their submissions to this committee, can be found at the following link: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/CommitteeDocuments/325/
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7, Gov. Bevin presented his State of the State address in the House Chambers.
During this presentation, Gov. Bevin highlighted the funding that Kentucky has allocated to the pension plans during his time in office.
“This is the first administration, supported in turn by legislation that came out of this body, that has funded 100 percent of the ARC, ever,” said Bevin of the state’s actuarially required contributions to the pension systems.
But money won’t be enough to solve the problem according to Bevin. He warned that structural changes to the retirement system are required.
KRTA legislative volunteers were in Frankfort meeting with legislators on Wednesday (2/6) and Thursday (2/7) of last week.
KRTA’s main legislative focus at this time is:
We will be back in Frankfort this week working with legislators to protect the earned benefits of Kentucky’s retired teachers. We will continue to share important information with you as it becomes available via email and text alerts.
The Public Pensions Working Group will continue meeting this coming week. At this time the committee plans to meet each Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in room 154 of the Capitol Annex in Frankfort.
The meetings are streamed live on KET at the following link: https://www.ket.org/legislature/
See past meetings of the Public Pensions Working Group at the following link: https://www.ket.org/legislature/?archive