Kentucky Gov. Calls Special Legislative Session to Address Pension Crisis

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin called for a special legislative session of the General Assembly Monday night to address the state’s public pension crisis less than week after the commonwealth’s Supreme Court struck down a pension reform law as unconstitutional.

“I am convening the General Assembly into special session to enact vital legislation that will be a meaningful first step toward shoring up our dying pension system,” Bevin said in a statement. “We stand at the threshold of financial failure. That is not acceptable.”

According to an official proclamation issued by Bevin, Kentucky’s public pension systems are the “worst funded in the nation” with an unfunded liability as high as $84 billion.

“Kentucky’s pension crisis represents the single greatest threat to the long-term financial health of the Commonwealth,” said Bevin. “Last week’s decision by the Supreme Court to strike down SB 151, based solely on process, and with utter disregard for legal precedent and the separation of powers, has only served to create further uncertainty, fear, and the likelihood of financial insolvency.”

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The Supreme Court had upheld a circuit court ruling that the legislature violated the state’s Constitution because it did not give lawmakers a “fair opportunity” to consider the bill before it was signed into law by Bevin in April.

As a result of the special session, two pension reform bills—House Bill 1 and House Bill 2—were introduced late Monday night by State Rep. Jerry Miller (R-Louisville). House Bill 1 is similar to the bill that was stuck down, with the exception that it does away with a requirement that the legislature switch to a funding method known as “level-dollar funding” that requires larger pension payments in the next few years.

House Bill 2 provides that the 3% benefit factor for years of service in excess of 30 in the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System only applies to years of service earned prior to July 1, 2024. It would also provide that the County Employees Retirement System (CERS) employer contribution rates not increase by more than 12% per year over the prior fiscal year from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2028.

In a Facebook video post, Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler said Bevin was being “irresponsible” and “disingenuous” for opening a special session just 22 days before the regular session begins.

“This is nothing but a reactionary public temper tantrum from the commonwealth’s highest elected official,” said Winkler, “and our state’s financial future will never improve if we keep wasting taxpayer dollars on governing around the people instead of with them.”

Tags: Andy Beshear, Kentucky, Kentucky Pension Crisis, Matt Bevin, Pension

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees the $200.2 billion New York City Retirement Systems, has called on Google parent Alphabet and broadcasting company CBS to end what he called “inequitable employment practices” that force employees to forgo their ability to challenge unlawful discrimination and harassment.

The NYC funds issued shareholder proposals that were submitted to both companies, urging them to end the mandatory arbitration of employment-related claims, noncompete agreements with employees, agreements with other companies not to recruit each other’s employees, and involuntary nondisclosure agreements (NDAs).

“These fine print agreements have damaging consequences for workers, investors, and the public,” said Stringer in a release. “Mandatory arbitration and forced non-disclosure silence workers and keep misconduct in the shadows. No-poaching agreements and non-competes can suppress pay and keep employees from leaving hostile workplaces.”

Stringer added that “these exploitative practices aren’t just wrong on a human level, they have a wide impact on our broader economy.”

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The proposals, which were submitted on behalf of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), New York City Police Pension Fund (Police), and Board of Education Retirement System (BERS), will be voted on in the upcoming year, and will be included in Alphabet and CBS’ proxy ballots.

The proposals cited Washington state’s recent ban of NDAs in sexual harassment cases and said similar legislation that has been proposed in New York, California, and Pennsylvania. It also said federal legislation has been introduced to limit employers’ ability to secure NDAs upfront and require employers to disclose information about sexual harassment claims.

“NDAs were allegedly used to keep sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly secret,” said the proposals, “and the #MeToo movement has drawn substantial attention to this problem.”

According to Stringer, companies have increasingly relied on a series of contractual arrangements with their employees that put strict limits workers’ ability to seek remedies for workplace misconduct and wrongdoing, including sexual harassment and discrimination.

“Corporations and boards of directors that continue to rely on the forced silencing of their employees are creating long-term reputational and regulatory risks for their companies and their investors,” said Stringer. “We’re committed to using our power as shareowners to unstack the deck, improve accountability, and position these companies for sustained growth.”

Tags: Alphabet, CBS, Google, New York City Employees' Retirement System (NYCERS), Scott Stringer