General Assembly forms Pension Task Force

It is no secret that Kentucky's public pension system is in crisis.

Today, initial steps toward solving the crisis were taken. The Kentucky General Assembly passed a resolution to:

Establish the Kentucky Public Pensions Task Force; provide that the purpose of the task force is to study issues regarding Kentucky's state-administered pension funds and to develop consensus recommendations concerning the benefits, investments, and funding of those funds; name the membership of the task force; require the task force to meet at least monthly before submitting its findings and recommendations; require its findings and recommendations and any proposed legislation to be submitted to the Legislative Research Commission by December 7, 2012; and provide that the Legislative Research Commission has authority to alternatively assign the issues identified in the Resolution to interim joint committees or subcommittees thereof.

This is a good first step toward reforming the broken public pension system in the Commonwealth. Hopefully substanative and meaningful solutions can be developed.

If the General Assembly is looking for a synopsis of the current pension situation and a few suggestions to get started, they could read the Bluegrass Institute's Future Shock: Legislators stoking the coals on Kentucky's runaway pension train. Feel free to email your legislator a copy!