KEA underling reveals boss hangs out at the public-pension trough — The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions

Mary Ruble, assistant deputy executive director at the Kentucky Education Association, took issue during Tuesday's public pensions task force meeting with a recent Bluegrass Institute claim that the state teachers union is one of several private organizations with its hand in the commonwealth's public pension cookie jar. Ruble says "it's simply not true" that KEA employees participate in the state's pension system. Yet, she goes on to admit that the union's top labor bosses -- president Sharron Oxendine and vice president Tom Denton -- do.

But the evidence -- as much as there can be without a transparent system -- points in favor of the Bluegrass Institute's assertion that KEA staff members who previously spent time in the classroom and contributed to the state teachers retirement system are eligible to participate in the taxpayer-funded pension plan.

This page from the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System web page clearly indicates (under "Other Organizations") that Ruble's teachers' union is an employer grubbing for money from the state pension system:

In order for any KEA staff member, including its president, to hang out at the public pension trough, two contributions are required -- one from the employer and the other from the employee.

Of course, this could all be cleared up if the Kentucky Retirement System was not, by statute, a secret. Since it is, we don't know for sure whose receiving a pension (unless Ruble tells us, of course), or the amount of those retirement checks.

There is absolutely no reason for a secretive system, especially considering that Kentucky faces a nearly $34 billion unfunded public pension liability.

Click here for information on questions -- the same ones Ruble was looking at when she swatted at the institute in Tuesday's meeting -- that you can ask call and ask elected officials about concerning transparency and other issues related to the public pension system. How to contact those officials is also contained in the link.