False choice on Ky. budget

Jane Driskell’s recent commentary regarding Gov. Matt Bevin’s budget proposal presents a false choice: slash programs for education, behavioral health and other programs, or continue to underfund the teacher and state employee retirement systems.

There is, of course, a third option: increase state government revenue.

Driskell’s approach is what the current administration wants: create dissent between those in favor of continued or expanded government services and those who are or will be government retirees.

Former Gov. Steve Beshear’s blue ribbon commission on tax reform and the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy have laid out in considerable detail opportunities for increasing tax revenue while making the tax code much more fair.

Driskell seems to think that the retirement reforms of the Beshear administration, a hybrid 401(k) plan coupled with a promise by the legislature to finally fully fund the actuarial required contribution, is a magic fix. It is not, despite what the Pew “experts” have to say.

So let’s do three things:

▪ Reject the false choice in Bevin’s budget proposal.

▪ Don’t buy the argument that the legislative “fix” during Beshear’s second term is sufficient to make up for his first-term neglect or the decade-long legislative underfunding.

▪ The legislature should show some guts and put tax reform on the agenda.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 7:30 PM with the headline "False choice on Ky. budget."