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[jaehyeongie]

merry christmas to all my lovely followers!!! thank you for supporting this blog although it's not always super active ;;; much love <3333 have a wonderful day~

[jaehyeongie]

thank you for 1k followers ^^

[a-fitzie]

KPMG Christmas Party!! 🎉🍸👼 #kpers #whiteparty #spicey #dranks #ivebeennicethisyear @chiara_ardi

[thedotte]

Local Electeds Named as Pro-KPERS Retirees Legislators

Below is a release from the Keeping the Kansas Promise Coalition. We shortened the list of legislators to only reflect local elected officials. Full the full list please visit their website by clicking here.

This year, faced with an $8 billion dollar unfunded liability in Kansas’ public employee pension plan (KPERS), the Legislature embarked on reform efforts to shore up the system. Governor Brownback’s position was quickly, and forcefully, staked out in his State of the State address.  The Governor implored legislators to transition KPERS to a costly defined-contribution plan and limit benefits for retirees while shifting all the risk of funding the system from the State to retirees. While the plan was hailed by some legislators simply looking to rubber stamp the Governor’s agenda, and appease Wall Street special interests who stood to make money from new account investment fees, other legislators saw the blatant unfairness of limiting benefits while shifting all the burden to public sector retirees.

In the end, under the bipartisan leadership of Senate President Steve Morris and Senator Laura Kelly, the Legislature crafted a new approach that would create a “cash balance” styled plan for new employees coming into the system. The cash balance plan is similar to the current KPERS plan as it is a type of defined benefit plan. Under the new plan, the employer and employee would each contribute to the plan and the investment would have a guaranteed annual return. Upon retirement, it would be transitioned into an annuity and pay a defined monthly benefit based upon the total contributions to the plan. While this would be a somewhat smaller benefit than that offered in the current KPERS system, it would still be a consistent, defined benefit paid over the retiree’s entire life.

During the course of the legislative session, there were numerous attempts to force state retirees into the defined-contribution plan coveted by the Governor.  However, these efforts failed to gain approval.

KPERS reform is always a difficult issue for policymakers to grasp. But what is clear is that there are those in the Legislature who choose to ignore the fact that the state has failed miserably to meet its obligation to state retirees and want to force punitive reforms upon retirees for no reason.  Thankfully, others recognize the state’s failures and worked toward more fair and equitable reforms that will strengthen the system for current and future retirees.

The following is a list compiled by Keeping the Kansas Promise Coalition of Kansas of state legislators who stood in support of the thousands of state retirees and their families and those legislators who chose to belittle the committment public sector retirees have made to make Kansas great and worked against the fair retirement they deserve.

 Senate 

David Haley (D) – District 4

Kelly Kultala (D) – District 5

House

Stan Frownfelter (D) – District 31

Loius Ruiz (D) – District 32

Tom Burroughs (D) – District 33

Valdenia Winn (D) – District 34

Broderick Henderson (D) – District 35

Kathy Wolfe Moore (D) – District 36

Mike Peterson (D) – District 37