Last spring, teachers in Kentucky massed in the state Capitol to protest Governor Matt Bevin’s proposed changes to their pensions and future pensions. Despite their protests, pension reform was added to a sewer bill in the middle of the night and passed. That bill was declared unconstitutional by Kentucky courts.
Governor Bevin called s special session to try again, and once again teachers turned out against the bill, which looked a lot like the one that was overruled.
The special session just ended in failure, no bill.
“Several critics of the pension plans immediately hailed the decision to end the special session.
“The governor’s attempt in the week before Christmas to cut the promised retirement of every teacher, police officer, firefighter, social worker, EMS and countless more public servants was wrong and cruel,” Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2019, said in a statement. “Tonight, our values prevailed and partisanship took a backseat to what is right.”
“Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler also weighed in.
“Real and effective solutions to our pension systems will not be solved by political games and chaos. … It’s our hope that a unanimous rebuke by the state Supreme Court last week and an admonishment by legislators tonight will finally make that clear to the governor,” she said in a statement.
“House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, like Beshear a Democratic candidate for governor in 2019, described the actions of his Republican counterparts as unprecedented.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Really, this is true? People like this kentucky gov have caused me to lose faith in the human race and this country
It is striking to see power waning in various states. Last minute passing of laws re-distributing power so as to curtail incoming lawmakers seems to be the order of the day. Adding this to the way political parties try to keep their power ultimately restricts freedom and human dignity. We see the right wing blindly doing this now. Wait until it is the turn of the left wing, if we ever really have a left wing in this country.
Right wing zealots need to be cautioned that their efforts to maintain power can be emulated. Restrictions by a left wing can be justified by reference to all the excesses of the right wing. Who can tell the difference between a Stalin and a Hitler?
43 billion in debt is what the article reads as far as the pension pool for the hard working people of KY. Teachers fire fighters police in jeopardy of losing their pensions due to the ky gov spending the money…you cannot make this crap up
Watch the PBS special (it’s online) called “The Pension Gamble.” Kentucky’s pension funds were balanced in 2000. Then politicians decided to use the pension funds as a piggy bank for their pet projects.
a key factor here is that Kentucky is only ONE of many states willing to play at the pension fund roulette wheel: may the organized Kentucky fight/win be a teaching moment across the nation
Conservatives are determined to stock the pond with the libertarian policies before they lose office and power. It is a just end to their reign when they are blocked from punishing public employees for no reason other than biased ideology.
It isn’t just at the state level. This happens all the time at the federal level. Dutch Ruppersburger (D-MD) wrote into the Sun (just last week) explaining why he had to vote for the farm bill even though republicans at the last minute threw in provisions for the war in Yemen. If he didn’t vote FOR the bill, thousands of his constituents would have their SNAP, WIC and other welfare benefits cut or discontinued. He basically called the GOP a bunch of mean spirited A-holes (in nicer terms of course). All of these last minute deals make it really hard for anyone to understand HOW the system works and WHY we have the mess that we have today. This is just extortion using tax payer dollars……tell me how this can be legal?
Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin used a dogwhistle of anti-Semitism to show his outrage at Pro Publica journalists who are investigating his former business associates, appointed by Bevin to government jobs and who now, receive big bucks in return. Bevin’s unfounded claim of Pro Publica’s reliance on Soros funding deserves condemnation.
Today, Soros was named Person of the Year by Financial Times for using his philanthropy to battle authoritarianism, racism and intolerance. He has championed a free press.
Soros contrasts with Z-berg and Gates who thwart democracy. What a surprise that the NYT times found FB was sharing and trading data with Netflix. Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, is on the FB board and he has sought to take control of community schools from
the people who pay for them and who send their kids to them.
Soros has become the all-purpose name to evoke anti-Semitism. He has used his vast wealth to support democratic institutions in the US and Europe. Due to Trump and Bannon’s influence, Europe is at risk of rising fascism. Soros has invested in free institutions and higher education where free thought is encouraged. The fascists consider him a danger.
Without Soros and Steyer, there would be a much weaker answer to the attack against America and Europe by tech tyrants and hedge funds.
Has the “liberal” think tank, Center for American Progress, been MIA on pension issues like the one in Kentucky? Tom Steyer should resign from CAP’s board and fund a think tank that is consistently liberal in deed, not lip service. Speculating the reason for CAP’s approach, the hedge fund-financed DFER is described as CAP’s sister organization. Hedge funds would really like to get people’s retirement savings so that they can build lavish palaces for themselves and lead lavish lifestyles which is the same reason they want to privatize schools.