Radio talk show host Joe Elliot at 970 WGTK interviewed Bluegrass Institute scholar Lowell Reese recently about the Institute’s new policy report “Future Shock: Kentucky Politician’s Opulent Pensions have become a Modern Day Gold Rush. ” The interview is the report in micro: Reese tells all the shocking numbers, obscene abuses, and conclusions the report offers.

Reese pulls no punches on the commonwealth’s retirement services “The Kentucky Employee Retirement System is virtually broke.” In the interview, Reese explains point by point how legislators are responsible for creating a public pension system which is not only in putting every Kentuckian deeper into debt, but also opens the door to new political leveraging.

In this respect, Reese responds to what the report cannot by discussing recent attempts and promises to fix the system.  “What they [the Kentucky Legislature] did in the summer of 2008 with what they called the reforms of the pension system was very, very cosmetic” says Reese.

The interview (and report) makes it obvious that the taxpayers of Kentucky are being duped by their representatives, Republican and Democrat alike, into paying for one of the nation’s most lavish public pensions programs.

The interview can be found here.