State retirees expect pension crisis to be solved

Underfunded public pensions is a critical issue facing our commonwealth, possibly the most critical for at least the next decade.

The question of “How did we get here?” has shifted to the more important one of “How do we fix this?”

Gov. Matt Bevin and legislators must do what their predecessors, in large part, failed to do: honor the full obligation of the state to its retired public employees. They must provide the revenue necessary to resolve the problem while mitigating the impact on the rest of the state budget.

We retirees have an expectation that the pension contract will be honored. This is not unfair nor unreasonable. During our working years, money was taken from our paychecks with the promise of an earned benefit in retirement. We had no option other than to participate and if there were issues with the state doing the same, it was not our doing nor our fault.

We met our obligations and now expect the state to do the same. Every public retiree and active employee must speak up and make their elected representatives aware of our expectations. The time has passed to sit back and wait.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 6:36 PM with the headline "State retirees expect pension crisis to be solved."