On Monday, the Kentucky Chamber unveiled a statewide campaign aimed at educating Kentucky’s citizens about the impact the state’s public pension crisis is having on the financial stability of the Commonwealth.
The campaign includes the release of a “Citizen’s Guide to Kentucky’s Pension Crisis,” a document that the Chamber is using to inform all Kentuckians on the impact of the crisis if not fixed, and what must be done to get the state out of serious debt.
At a press conference announcing the pension awareness campaign, Kentucky Chamber President and CEO Dave Adkisson outlined the dire nature of the problem and highlighted the fact that the crisis impacts all Kentuckians.
“The crisis threatens everything the state of Kentucky needs to do to make progress for our future generations,” Adkisson said. “The total unfunded liability—or the deficit, if you will—is $36 billion. If you divide that by every man, woman and child in Kentucky, it is $8,268, a huge tag that every person has on themselves right now in terms of what their portion is.”
Adkisson went on to commend Gov. Matt Bevin on his goal to fund above the actuarial required contribution (ARC) to begin shoring up the state’s pension systems laid out in his budget proposal and called it a step in the right direction.
Along the same lines, Adkisson said failure to act on the crisis will make the problem worse which is what prompted the Chamber to produce the guide and make factual information about the state’s pension problems available across the state.
“We are going to try and help build a greater understanding across the state so that citizens will contact their legislators and encourage them to make the bold step that’s going to be required to fix this problem,” Adkisson said. “It won’t be fixed in one year, but this is the year we have to get started.”
The Chamber was joined at the press conference by members of the General Assembly close to the pension situation who thanked the business community for putting together the informational guide to educate the people of the state on the issue.
With the statewide awareness campaign, the Kentucky Chamber is encouraging Kentuckians to:
- Read and share the full report: “Citizen’s Guide to Kentucky’s Pension Crisis”
- Watch an overview of the report on YouTube
- Share an overview of the report
- Visit kypensioncrisis.com
- Like and share posts by Kentucky Pension Crisis on Facebook and @kypensioncrisis on Twitter
- Join the conversation with the hashtag #fixpensionsnow
- Urge members, employees, friends and family to read “Citizen’s Guide to Kentucky’s Pension Crisis”
- And contact your legislators and demand the problem be addressed during the 2016 legislative session at 1-800-372-7181
Watch video from the press conference below:
An explanation of Kentucky’s pension crisis in under three minutes can be seen here.
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