LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky lawmakers are back to work for a special session called by Gov. Matt Bevin in the hopes of passing a pension relief bill.
Bevin said Thursday the $65,000-per-day session should be quick and easy.
“I expect that in five days, middle of next week, it will be done,” he said.
Bevin has been working since May to build support for his plan. He surprised lawmakers when he vetoed a similar bill that passed the 2019 session because he said parts of it were illegal.
The bill is designed to help more than 100 of the state's regional universities and so-called quasi-government agencies, such as health departments and rape crisis centers. They face a crippling increase in the cost of their pension contributions, and some could be forced to close.
Gov. Matt Bevin expects special session to wrap up by the middle of next week.
“This bill has been out there for months,” Bevin said. “Everybody's read it. Everybody understands it.”
The bill freezes the agencies' pension contribution rates at the current level for one year. It then offers several options for them to either stay in or buy their way out of the pension system.
“The Kentucky Retirement System people will determine exactly what the impact is on each of the employers,” said Republican Rep. Jerry Miller, of Louisville. “And they get to decide for themselves what's best.”
Rep. Jerry Miller of Louisville says the pension relief bill gives employers options.
But Democrats say the bill gives the agencies an impossible choice.
“'Take this crushing debt where you won't be able to stay open or pay off a crushing debt that you can't afford over the next number of years.' It is not a realistic solution,” said Attorney General Andy Beshear, who is challenging Bevin in the governor’s race.
Attorney General Andy Beshear says the pension proposal gives employers an impossible choice.
Democrats are pushing an alternative that would freeze the agencies’ pension rate indefinitely and re-direct excess retiree health insurance payments to the lower-funded pension side for five years. The proposal is not expected to gain traction in the Republican-dominated legislature.
“The Democrat alternative is the exact same can-kick that got us into this trouble,” Bevin said.
But Bevin's bill is far from a long-term fix for the state's pension system, which is more than $30 billion in the red.
“It is not a reform bill," said Miller, who's also a member of the Public Pension Oversight Board. "It's a payment plan for the 118 quasi-government entities."
Bevin said much more work needs to be done.
He would prefer a comprehensive pension reform bill such as the one struck down by the state Supreme Court last year, but he said there is no appetite for that right now in the legislature.
“I don't know that that's going to happen,” Bevin said. “So, we'll chip away at this until we've saved the pension system.”
The special session gavels in at 8 a.m. Friday.
The bill must get three readings in both the House and Senate. If all goes according to plan, final passage is expected by next Wednesday.
Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
