Bluegrass Institute

The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentuckys first and only free-market think tank, is asking all candidates campaigning for General Assembly seats during this falls election to pledge support for bringing a greater level of transparency to Kentuckys troubled public pension system. The Institute recently sent and asks all incumben... ts and challengers to sign an 84-word pledge vowing to back making the Kentucky Retirement Systems, Teachers Retirement System and Judicial Form Retirement System fully transparent, including requiring the disclosure of names, status and projected actual retirement benets and benet payments from the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, State Police Retirement System, County Employees Retirement System and Judicial Retirement Plan. For much of the past decade, the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions has led from the forefront of pension reform in the commonwealth of Kentucky. Future Shock, the institutes groundbreaking four-part series released in 2011 and 2012, warned that without meaningful reforms, the pension liability would engulf Kentuckys entire economy. In a column published by the Bluegrass Institute on March 26, 2013, the late Lowell Reese, an esteemed journalist, publisher and former Chamber of Commerce executive, urged policymakers to take seriously the need to address the commonwealths deepening pension crisis. The soaring cost of public employee pensions in Kentucky has become a major societal issue, said Reese, who authored the Future Shock series. The standard of living of all Kentuckians is at stake. The pension and healthcare funds for government employees in Kentucky the state-administered pension systems are in significant financial stress. The unfunded liabilities stand at $31 billion. Public employee pensions in Kentucky are badly draining the budgets of city and county governments, dipping into the budget of the commonwealth as never before, pushing up the states debt level while pulling down its credit ...Read More