Not-so-fun-facts about Kentucky's teachers' pension plans

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Did you know...

• Kentucky has the highest early-retiree (pre-65) public pension costs of any other state in the country?

• For each teacher that retires before turning 65, Kentucky taxpayers will be billed a total of nearly $800,000?

• Kentucky Teachers Retirement Systems (KTRS) was 61 percent funded in 2011, but fell more than a whole three points just one year later to 57 percent funded?

• Kentucky has the seventh lowest funded public pension for teachers in the nation?

If Kentucky teachers are to be ensured the type of retirement they've earned through their years of hard work shaping the future of the Bluegrass State, fundamental reform must be made to KTRS. In an era of longer life-expectancy and volatile capital markets, our elected officials must raise the retirement age to be eligible for taxpayer-funded public pensions, and establish the type of pension plan that has been tried and true in the private sector: defined-contribution plans.

As Jim Waters, President of the Bluegrass Institute, put it in his most recent Bluegrass Beacon column,

"Though legislators during the 2013 legislative session did take baby steps in the direction of the proven market alternative by establishing limited “hybrid plans,” they refused to take the kind of bold stride that would guarantee total employer-employee contributions toward retirement. Instead, public workers continue to languish in an illusory world that absolutely guarantees rich benefits in the unknown – and uncertain – future."