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!