Special Interests vs. Democracy

by: Kenneth Kolle

There have been many posts on social media lately trying to make the pension crisis sound like a Democratic created problem that was magically fixed with one shake of a republican's wand; that just isn’t the case.

The teachers pension system is funded by several pots of money and overall they all have taken some pretty serious hits since the teachers union decided to invest their retirement money in the stock market. Many analyst in the 90s cautioned them from doing so because even though the market was rather strong in the early 90s the chance of it staying strong was not very promising. Many elected officials over the years from both parties had tried correcting these risks before the changes started costing them. But, just as we are seeing today, politics kept getting in the way.

KABOOOOM!!!

2008, the bottom quickly falls out of the stock market. States start losing federal dollars. Folks all across the bluegrass started to lose their jobs, their homes, healthcare, and even their retirement dollars.

Kentucky was hit extremely hard; and this was worse case scenario for a pension that depended heavily upon thriving stocks.

Democrats, republicans, independent analyst, brokerage firms, legislators, and anyone and everyone elected over the following years steadily chipped away at the problem.

During these last few years we have seen the stock market quadruple in size. (but, NOT because of Bevin)

We have seen job growth soar to record highs. We have seen development all across the country increase drastically. We have seen healthcare cost go through the roof, fuel prices remain extremely high, our highways deteriorating, our average life expectancy decline the first time in a century because of the opioid epidemic, and more folks are retiring than are entering the workforce.

Not necessarily as positive as you might have thought it was gonna be, right? (sounds like a bubble and I’ll get into that at a later date)

Most responses you will get this close to election, is either going to be pro-one-party, or bashing another.

I’m not going to bash a party here because other than the typical problems party politics caused this pension issue; the deception surrounding what’s happening with the pension solely rests on one man's shoulders. (by his admission)

Our current governor, yes he’s a republican but, no, that’s not the problem. The problem is that he is touting that he waved his wand and magically fixed 20 years of pension issues with one fell swoop.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

The TRUTH is: Bevin hired an outside firm to take a look at the pension problems because no elected official on the school board, in the governor's office, or in the legislation knew how much money it would take to permanently fund the program, and they still don’t!

Now, what you need to know at this point, is that funding this program isn’t done with just funds from investments. It’s also partially funded from tax dollars appropriated by legislation, which over the years that portion has been funded.

(for simplicity reasons I will make this a generalization)

The portion being underfunded was being ‘underfunded’ because the dollars didn’t meet the ‘projections.’

This can be explained by looking at it like a company files a loss if they didn’t meet their projections from the following year. It doesn’t mean they lost money, they just didn’t gain what they were expecting based on whatever factors they looked at the following year.

So who decides the amount of funding needed?

Generally, it is a committee with teachers and elected positions making these determinations and during last year’s legislative session a bill was introduced to restructure that committee, and allow more governmental control of that committee and the funds it collects. Luckily for public education Bevin’s cronies, which included Alvarado, didn’t get that bill passed.

Nevertheless, the Bevin administration moved forward with their politically motivated pension reform plan that didn’t provide them with any real help from the firm they paid to give them a number, nor did they listen to the legislators that had a bill passed and sitting on the governor's desk that would have taken care of this year’s obligations.

Bevin made sure to call a ‘special’ session; and it was definitely ‘special’ for a couple of reasons.

First off, he called this meeting at the end of the week. Which meant nothing was accomplished Saturday or Sunday except sixty thousand dollars a day was being paid to the legislators while they waited on Bevin to return from vacationing.

Second, the other reason it lives up to the name ‘special’ session is because the revisions he made to the bill only transfers funds from other programs/accounts into the pensions to give a false sense of progress.

Third, he spent months trying to get them to write a bill that he could use to get re-elected and as the deadline quickly approached the legislators knew a bill, even a bad one, had to be signed or their obligations would not have been met. They were literally strong armed (bullied) into passing this bill even though it immediately caused some non-government employees to lose their retirement. (another issue for another discussion)

Why does any of this matter?

It matters because robbing Paul to Pay Peter doesn’t mean your obligations are fulfilled, it only means you’ve delayed those obligations. (continuing the can kicking)

The TRUTH is: believing all the campaign rhetoric, and the copied and pasted unverified information found on the internet is extremely dangerous to our democracy. Getting involved by making the trip to Frankfort on a regular basis to sit in on hearings, and meetings, will allow ‘We The People’ to see what is really happening as it unfolds. It will allow us to have a perspective not achievable through media sound bites, and campaign rhetoric.

So, where to go to from here?

Now we (he) must pay back Paul. Or, in this case he must find the funds needed to continue making these payments along with paying back the funds allocated to this ‘special’ smoke and mirrors show.

He has stated many times that (we) must pay for the things we want in order to do this (we) must get more people to move to our state and get more businesses going so (we) can get people working, and paying taxes.

He has also stated we must increase our taxes on fuel and/or start charging people based on the miles they drive. (don’t forget, he has already reduced the amount you can deduct for mileage each year )

He has also stated many times that (we) must start paying more on daily commodities like food, fuel and even service.

And let’s not forget about him cutting the funding for all the cities and counties across the commonwealth, reversing the minimum wage increase, and he and Alvarado wants everyone with preexisting conditions to be dropped by their insurance carriers.

He did NOT fix the teacher’s pension system!! Nor can he with the amount of tax revenue currently coming in!! He very creatively deceived the naive voters into believing he did this, all the while, devising a plan to make (us) pay for every penny of it. He chose his wording very carefully throughout this campaign and if re-elected he will be sure to say he told (you) that (we) must increase tax revenue by raising taxes on everything the low and middle class depend on to survive.

Bevin did NOT fix the pension and unlike what his campaign manager and his party would like for you to believe, the budget cuts we are seeing in cities all across the state are a direct result of the need to pay back Paul.

When going to the polls in the morning, be sure to understand this smoke and mirror show, is just that!!

You are not voting for extremist national policy’s and your vote is not about saving babies. Our governor is just that, a governor! He is supposed to be working for us, not the other way around! You’re voting for someone willing to sacrifice their beliefs, their time, and themselves to serve ‘The People,’ not a national ideology, or special Interests.

Vote for We The People!