No pension solution

The General Assembly passed a budget and adjourned by April 15 and I am not a bit sorry that their actions infuriate me because of what they do not do for Kentucky. The irony in my home is that everyone — including a full-time college student who is working and will have loans to pay when she graduates — made sure our checks to the U.S. Treasury and Kentucky treasurer were in the mail by April 14.

Any place in this country that survived and is benefiting from today’s economy did so because of past and continued investment in education. What does Kentucky’s budget do? It devotes $1 billion to correcting the failure to fund retirement plans in Kentucky over the next two years.

Before arms get tired slapping backs, please note what it does not do. It does not identify a long-term plan to address a debt that is more than $30 billion to those same pension systems. We can debate later about retirement plans for public employees; but regardless of the plan, that debt does not go away.

This budget also continues to cut state government and education after repeated cuts over the past 10 years. The result is a less efficient government, higher tuition and fewer students and teachers. The results are mediocrity at best.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "No pension solution."