Still Ignoring the Big Problem
As the media and General Assembly buzz about budget-related special sessions, there is still no discussion about the one issue that must be addressed for the state to improve its financial footing.
The state's pension system is still at least a $30 billion unfunded liability, and that liability was only worsened by legislative action in this session. If the paltry reforms of last year's special session was one small step forward, this session saw two steps back. The only discussion about the gross betrayal of the commitment made in ES08 HB 1 is how to abrogate it wholly.
The state pension system provides benefits to retirees that dwarf what can be found inthe private sector, and even Herald-Leader anti-business columnist Tom Eblen has noticed:
Public employees have been shielded from some of these market forces, but taxpayers are demanding that change. Generous government retirement plans are no longer affordable.
Part of the problem is that the system has allowed many state employees to retire at 50, as a childhood friend of mine did last year. During the special session, the full retirement age for newly hired employees was raised to 57.
State Sen. Charlie Borders, a Grayson Republican who frequently speaks about pension reform, thinks the full retirement age should be 62. "Life expectancy is increasing," he said. "For people age 50 and 55 to be able to retire, I just don't think that's acceptable."
Retirement at 50 or 55 might make sense for people in dangerous public safety jobs or those whose work involves strenuous manual labor. But for most state employees, who work in offices and use their brains more than their backs, it's hard to justify.
Eblen even points out that the state pension system is a contributor to Kentucky's low life expectancy:
A 2005 study of Shell Oil employees, published in the British Medical Journal, found those who retired at age 55 were 89 percent more likely to die within 10 years after retirement than those who retired at 65. The results didn't vary significantly by gender or socioeconomic status.
This really is just about the most pressing issue facing the commonwealth. It's the most irresponsible thing our leadership regularly practices, and it's apparently killing people. It's time to do something more than a feel-good special session that does little followed by a feel-good regular session that rips apart the paltry reforms enacted.
