Lawmakers' choice: Take steps to reduce public-pension benefits and beneficiaries, or watch the system collapse

Some reporters claim: "Kentucky's choice: Have a mental health agency close or further damage the pension fund?"

But a question not being asked is: Why was a nonpublic agency like Seven County Services on the taxpayer-funded public pension plan in the first place?

Why are there 1,701 agencies on the commonwealth's pension dole, including a private credit union with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue?

Even the state's teachers union said  during the August hearing of the legislative pension task force said they agreed with the Bluegrass Institute that employees of nonpublic agencies should not be included in the public pension system. Ironically, some of the employees at that very teachers union are mooching off taxpayers.

There is another choice for lawmakers: Reduce the number of beneficiaries or watch the system move closer to insolvency.