Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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Oct. 25
Lexington Herald-Leader on solutions for the underfunding of Kentucky’s public pension systems:
We agree with Gov. Matt Bevin and his Republican colleagues that underfunding of Kentucky’s public pension systems is one of the most daunting challenges facing the state. Whatever the solution, it will involve billions of dollars and have a profound impact on tens of thousands of Kentucky families.
And that’s why it’s so important to pursue possible solutions with unbiased information, clear eyes, open minds and robust public discussion.
Instead, Bevin and Republican leadership engaged in a secretive process and are now gearing up to steamroll their “fix” through a compliant and confused General Assembly. Those who raise questions about the process, the proposal or the plan to rush it through a five-day special session are trying to “gin up fright and paranoia,” to avoid “shared sacrifice.” They are “fear mongers chicken littles,” using “Halloween scare tactics,” in an effort to “preserve the status quo.”
Despite their own over-the-top language, when the president of the Kentucky Education Association warned about problems retaining and recruiting qualified teachers under Bevin’s plan, her “rhetoric” was decried as doing more damage than anything in the plan.
But that’s the trouble: So few people, even among its defenders, really know what’s in the bill, said to run to 400 pages. On KET’s Kentucky Tonight, Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Louisville, admitted that even members of his party in the House had not seen a draft.
Even fewer seem to understand how it will affect state budgets in the short term, much less the long-term implications.
On that same Kentucky Tonight, Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said that without this - still unseen - legislation the state faces deep cuts to the biennial budget that will be passed next year.
But the truth is that without additional revenue the state will remain deeply under water on public retiree benefits regardless.
Here’s why: thousands of current retirees are owed benefits for the rest of their lives, and thousands more who will retire in the next several years are also covered by the existing plans. There isn’t enough money to pay those benefits. Worse, if new employees are transitioned away from the pension system into 401k-type savings plans, they will not be contributing to the pension funds and, worse again, with no new money coming in the plan will have to accept lower returns on more conservative investments to assure they have cash on hand to pay benefits.
Short version: the state will be on the hook for billions in pension payments in years to come no matter what.
At the same time, if this forthcoming legislation becomes law, the state will have to pay the costs of making the transitions to the new funds and, of course, it will have to ante up for the employer’s match for the individual savings accounts.
Anyone selling the story that passing this legislation, whatever it is, equals “problem solved” is either lying or deeply confused.
To divert attention from that sad fact, Republicans have developed a narrative that paints teachers and other public employees as greedy, unwilling to take a hit for the common good.
They are also ignoring the real possibility that court challenges to the changes could drag on for years and, if successful as they have been elsewhere, leave Kentucky much worse off than it is now. In his own head-buried-in-the-sand moment Miller declared, “we need to control our destiny, not worry about what a court might do.”
Easy for him to say but Standard & Poor’s, one of the agencies that rates Kentucky’s credit worthiness, was more concerned about the fallout if the state walks away from the “inviolable contract” that courts have ruled elsewhere prevent cutting pension benefits. If that happens, S& P wrote, “this may have negative implications as the state would need to make up those costs.”
More fear mongering?
Online: http://www.kentucky.com/
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Oct. 26
Daily News of Bowling Green on a group working to help veterans:
No veteran who has served this country admirably should have to go one day of their life without food, housing or other essential needs.
Veterans are some of the best people on Earth. They answered the call when their country needed them, and for that reason alone we owe it to every veteran to ensure they are taken care of once they are no longer in the military. Unfortunately, our country has fallen short in doing that in many cases, whether it pertains to vets not receiving adequate care at the Veterans Administration and its hospitals or not giving them the full benefits they rightfully deserve.
That needs to change, and change quickly. As we approach another Veterans Day, we should pledge to do all we can to make sure our veterans are taken care of. One such group that has committed to that task for three years is the Kentucky-based Operation Stand Down.
The group’s Backpacks for Veterans in Need project started in October and will continue through Dec. 9. The backpacks will be filled with food and essentials such as shoes, socks, underwear, toothpaste and various hygiene items. The group has received 125 donated backpacks and now needs to collect items to fill them.
This is a wonderful cause that we believe could go a long way toward helping area veterans in need. It’s good to see local businesses and organizations getting involved. Greenwood Ford is a permanent drop-off location. Other businesses and organizations helping collect items are Family Works Therapy, Cone Funeral Home and the Flora Templeton Stuart law firm.
Local restaurants such as Roosters, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cambridge Market and Blaze Pizza have also helped through donating a portion of sales to the backpack effort. Organizations such as the American Legion Post 23, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1298 and the Veterans Administration Clinic are also helping with the effort.
Not only does Operation Stand Down help veterans get the essentials they need, the group also helps veterans become more financially independent.
Operation Stand Down tries to follow President Abraham Lincoln’s creed - “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan” - which is very admirable. We wholeheartedly support this group’s mission and urge people in the community to donate items to this group to help our veterans.
Online: http://www.bgdailynews.com/
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Oct. 27
The State Journal of Frankfort on a bill that wouldn’t hold motorists liable for causing injury or death to someone blocking traffic during an unpermitted protest:
Kentucky will have achieved a new low if our state legislature passes - or even considers - a bill pre-filed by Rep. C. Wesley Morgan, R-Madison County.
In any other universe it would seem insane that a bill would contain language saying motorists “may not be held criminally or civilly liable for causing injury or death to a person” who is blocking traffic during an unpermitted protest. Meanwhile, the bill states, in said protest, anyone who impedes the flow of traffic is liable to a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Is the driver supposed to stop, check with someone about a permit and if he finds the protesters have none, proceed, without fear of prosecution, to clear the street with his vehicle?
We certainly don’t encourage protesters to break the law, but to even entertain the notion that it’s OK to hit - even kill - them with impunity if they slow a vehicle on its way to wherever, is just insane. Or, as Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, said, “It’s absolutely immoral.”
Flood added: “. and we all know it.” However, apparently, we don’t, or the gentleman from Madison County wouldn’t have put pen to paper - or fingers to keyboard - to execute such a thing as this ridiculous bill.
It seems, too, that legislators in at least a half-dozen other states filed so-called “right-to-drive” bills with a similar intent in mind: to protect motorists from prosecution if protesters happen to inconvenience them on their rounds. As testimony to some remaining sanity, none has become law.
In a person vs. vehicle scenario, the one that weighs a couple of tons always wins!
If this bill gets passed, we need to redouble our soul-searching and the words, likely espoused by the penner of thing, to “love thy neighbor as thyself” . even if you don’t agree with him.
Online: http://www.state-journal.com/
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