Kansas House panel endorses cut in public pensions

[The Northerner]

TOPEKA, Kan. - A Kansas House committee endorsed a bill on Wednesday that would cut future retirement benefits for current teachers and government workers to help solve the long-term funding woes of their pension system.

The measure that cleared the Pensions and Benefits Committee on a voice vote also would increase the state's annual contributions to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System and increase the age at which many teachers and government workers could start drawing full retirement benefits.

The bill goes against a longstanding assumption that's governed past debates over pension legislation, that the state constitution and Kansas law prevent the state from altering its public pension plans by forcing lower benefits on current participants. But committee members said they're compelled to act because of the projected $7.7 billion gap between anticipated KPERS revenues and promised benefits over the next few decades.

"It's not trimming around the edges," Chairman Mitch Holmes, a St. John Republican, said after the committee's meeting. "It goes to the fundamental problem."

The bill is likely to draw opposition from public employees' and retirees' groups, who've long argued that the problem facing KPERS is that the state has historically fallen short of its obligations on contributing to the pension system and needs to catch up by committing more money. Critics of the current pension system contend the state simply can't afford the promises it has made on pensions.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41991524

[aquart]

1. The fundamental problem would be a complete lack of good faith?

[Angry Dragon]

2. Raise the damn taxes

The rich keep on telling people at the bottom just to make more money and things would get better.
Then how come when states and the feds start running short the solution is to cut things out.
The answer would be if things are equal is to raise taxes on the more wealthy to create more income.

[county worker]

3. They tell you to save for retirement yet they don't want to pay a decent salary.

They say save for retirement and when you have a pension plan they want to cut the benefits. The say save for retirement and when you have a 401K they trash the economy so you lose value.

They also want to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Basically you are to work until you die and hopefully you die young!.