These educators were elected by outraged teachers. Now they have a pension bill.
Two Republican lawmakers who were swept into office on the backs of teachers angry at the Republican effort to overhaul the state’s pension system filed a pension bill of their own Wednesday.
Rep. Scott Lewis, R-Hartford, and Rep. Travis Brenda, R-Cartersville, both of whom are educators, proposed a bill that would create a two-tier benefit system that they say will allow future teachers to keep a defined-benefit pension while saving the state more money than last year’s pension law, which was struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The bill is one of two pension bills filed Wednesday, the last day to file a bill in the 2019 legislative session. Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Louisville, also filed a bill that would require level-dollar funding for the pension system and would freeze pension contribution limits for local governments.
Many of the details of the bill filed by Lewis remain unclear, as does how it will be received by teachers who stormed the capitol last Spring and later helped Brenda and Lewis get elected. KEA President Stephanie Winkler and Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System general counsel Beau Barnes didn’t return phone calls Wednesday night.
Brenda said Wednesday he thinks teachers will support the bill since it doesn’t affect existing teachers and maintains a defined-benefit plan for future teachers.
“That’s important,” Brenda said. “That’s what needs to be done to attract highly qualified personnel into those positions.”
Lewis, the primary sponsor, is the former Superintendent of the Ohio County School District and Brenda, his co-sponsor, is still a teacher in Rockcastle County. When the legislature debated solutions to the pension crisis last year, they slowly pulled back changes proposed for current teachers and retirees.
The two men, both of whom are vested in the Teachers Retirement System, started by only proposing changes for future teachers. Among those changes was an increase in the retirement age to 55. Current teachers can retire after 27 years of service. New teachers would also have to pay a larger part of their paycheck to retirement benefits.
The lawmakers said early financial estimates of the bill show that it will save the state more money than last year’s pension law while giving teachers the security of a defined-benefit system, along with a second retirement account that will give them added flexibility.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday night how the benefits offered under the new proposal compare to those provided to existing teachers.
Republicans have been clear that the bill serves as a starting point for discussion, reiterating that there is still no clear consensus on how to deal with the issue in the few remaining weeks of this year’s legislative session.
House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said he hadn’t seen the bill Wednesday but he said finding consensus between his caucus and Senate Republicans was a challenge.
“I still think it’s really difficult,” Osborne said. “I’m hopeful, because it is an issue that is timely and it’s one we need to deal with sooner than later, but it is still a very, very difficult thing to do.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 8:58 AM.
