Gov. Beshear Signs Pension Reform, Funding Bills

Statement

"The recent legislative session offered a renewed spirit of cooperation and thoughtful discourse. That new atmosphere allowed us to reach a bipartisan agreement to solve the most pressing financial problem facing our state -- our monstrous unfunded pension liability and the financial instability of our pension fund. Equally important, we worked out a way to create new revenue to pay our recommended General Fund contribution, without robbing funds from education.

I thank the legislative Pension Reform Task Force for their hard work, which led to some critical changes in our pension system that will ensure its long term reliability. I also thank our legislative leaders for their efforts to forge an agreement on funding that protects critical services like education from near-certain cuts due to the ballooning pension liability.

As a result of this legislation, we fully honor the commitments made to state workers and retirees; address the financial uncertainty that threatened our state's credit rating; improve transparency and legislative oversight of the Kentucky Retirement Systems; and increase local government representation on its Board. I'm proud to sign SB2 and HB440 into law."

-- Governor Steve Beshear

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