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Bevin Says GOP Pension Plan Is a Good One

Bevin Says GOP Pension Plan Is a Good One
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Oct. 19, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 19, 2017 | 11:11 AM | PADUCAH, KY
Kentucky's leaders say they will close the state's troubled pension system for most new employees, offering them a 401(k)-style plan as they seek to stop the bleeding in one of the country's worst funded public retirement plans. 

Governor Matt Bevin unveiled the plan Wednesday. The Governor spoke with West Kentucky Star on Thursday.

"I would encourage people to go to kentuckypensions.com and they can read for themselves the highlights of the plan. And realize that indeed it is a very, very good plan for saving the system, and guaranteeing that the people that are funding the system have light at the end of the tunnel," Bevin told the Star.

Bevin said the plan was drafted with input from all kinds of state employees, and they tried to satisfy as many as possible while making the plan solvent over the next 30 years. 

Current workers would continue in the current system until they turn 65 or hit 27 years of service, when they would be moved into a 401(k)-style plan. 

Despite recommendations from a consultant, the plan does not have a "clawback" of previously-awarded COLA for current retirees, so there will be no reduction in their pension checks. 

Hazardous duty workers, such as police officers and firefighters, will continue in the same system they are in now.  

He said legislators who must vote on the proposal in a special session will see a big change in their pension plans.

Bevin said, "They are gonna eat their own cooking. They will be treated just like every other KERS non-hazardous employee. I think it's good. I think they need to lead by example and they agree. There's a lot of people who had been previously frustrated that maybe legislators had exceptions to things that others didn't have, and while that may have been the case in the past, it is not the case going forward."

Kentucky is among the worst states with pension problems, rivaling Illinois as the number one worst unfunded plan.

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