Public employee retirement plans are wholly underfunded. Some states like Kansas with over $5 billion in unfunded liabilities are trying to deal with it by increasing its contributions and issuing pension obligation bonds. Kansas is going one step further. Kansas Senate Bill No. 362 creates a two-tier retirement benefit system so that some public employees are more equal than others. The Bill increases the retirement age and employee contribution rate in the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System for employees hired after July 1, 2009.
Sound like a plan? The flip side is that future workers who retire under what has been called a reform plan will receive an automatic 2 percent cost-of-living increase every year starting at age 65. Maybe part of the cost will come from a recently passed casino gambling bill which allows Kansas to become the first state to officially own gambling facilities.
Are we still in Kansas, Dorothy?
Hat tip to Nancy at RetirementThink.
