Date: 11-29-2017
House Republicans say they’re close to a deal on a revised pension reform proposal
FRANKFORT, Ky. – With the window for a special legislative session on pension reform about to slam shut, House Republican leaders said Tuesday they are making progress but still have no deal on a revised reform bill that can win passage in their chamber.
“We’re very close to having a plan that our members can support and that the Senate will also support,” House Speaker Pro Tem David Osborne told reporters following a closed meeting of the House majority Republicans.
But Osborne, of Prospect, said leaders he had no revised reform plan to release, but would do so “Just as soon as we get one that we’re comfortable releasing.”
And he acknowledged that time is running extremely short on the goal of passing pension at a special session before the end of 2017.
“It’s a very, very tight window. But … until we get out of 2017 I think it’s still possible,” he said.
Gov. Matt Bevin released his pension reform proposal last month and he has repeatedly promised — emphatically and as recently as last week — that he will call a special session to pass pension reform before the year ends.
But the plan Bevin proposed has been met with widespread opposition among education groups, organizations representing retired public employees and some others.
While leaders of the Senate Republican majority that original plan would pass their chamber, House GOP leaders have said it never won sufficient support to pass in the House.
Bevin unveiled the plan with the endorsements of Senate President Robert Stivers and then-House Speaker Jeff Hoover. It would put new public employees and teachers into 401(k)-like savings plans, and move current public employees and teachers to the 401(k)-like plans after 27 years of service, though teachers would have the option of remaining in their traditional pension plans for three additional years.
Bevin has said his plan will finally put Kentucky on a course of resolving its pension debts of more than $40 billion — and he says it will do so without breaking any promises to retirees or current employees.
But opponents have objected to many aspects of the hugely complex, 505-page bill that Bevin offered. The provision that has drawn the most protest would require all state and local government workers and teachers to pay 3 percent more for retiree health benefits.
Osborne said Tuesday that in their closed discussions the House Republicans have addressed “a great number of concerns that have been voiced.” But he declined to say which concerns or whether the 3 percent more for health benefits is one of them.
Bevin has said it is important to pass pension reform this year so that lawmakers can focus on the next state budget, tax reform, and other important matters on the agenda of the regular session that begins Jan. 2.
After this week there are just three more weeks until Christmas. And even if House and Senate leaders can come together and agree on a new plan, it will take time to convert that plan into bill form. And Osborne acknowledged that after a bill is in-hand it will take another week to 10 days to get an actuarial analysis to show how much the bill will cost taxpayers and impact the state’s pension plans.
House Majority Leader Jonathan Shell, of Lancaster, said that even if time is running short it’s important that the House keep working on a bill that has sufficient support whenever that bill comes up for a vote.
“Regardless of whether we go into a special session … or we deal with this in regular session, we’ve got to address this problem,” Shell said.
