Fiscal courts should approve special district budgets and tax rates

I moved to Kentucky in 2008 when the economy crashed.   Our family decided that it was time for us to live by a budget in order to avoid our own fiscal cliff.   Each of us puts our receipts into a jar.  At the end of the month, we painstakingly open the lid and review each receipt to match our credit card statements, and to see how we are doing in meeting our budgeted expenses.   By careful examination, we discovered unauthorized charges.   We also realized that certain months we had to spend less in order to stay within our budget.   Planning for the future, and accounting for it today, is our reality.

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Pension Reform Rally

The Northern KY Tea Party is sponsoring a Pension Reform Rally on Wednesday February 27th at the Capitol Rotunda which is in the KY State Capitol Building..700 Capitol Ave in Frankfort, KY. The Rally is from 2-3 pm.

The State of KY public pension system is over $30 billion in debt. Standard & Poors just rated our overall outlook as poor due to our unfunded pension system. We will address some of the reasons why our pension system is a mess...such as..why didn't our legislators make the required payment to KY retirement system, why are we still offering a defined benefit plan, and why are we still projecting a 7.5% return on investments. We will also discuss HB 299 which allows Legislators to super size their pension, why simply moving new hires into a hybrid cash-balance plan won't solve our pension problem, and where are we going to get the millions of dollars required to make our pension payment. We will address these issues and more.

We have lined up 3 terrific speakers for the event. Jim Waters, President of the Bluegrass Institute who's article Future Shock was inspirational on shedding the light on many of our pension problems, will speak...City of Covington Commissioner and Senior First VP at Wells Fargo, Steve Frank, who has stated publicly that the pension obligation required by cities has caused some layoffs will offer his view as will Phil Moffett, former Republican candidate for Governor and co-founder of School Choice Scholarships. With this trio we intend to point the problems and offer solutions to our pension problem.

Please join us and learn how you can help resolve our pension problem.

Senate Bill 57 (SB 57); Pension Transparency

Information is publicly available in the State of Kentucky regarding the salaries of all public employees. When they retire it is a different story (No pension transparency. Surprised?, 2012). Currently, information specific to individual Kentucky Retirement System members, including names and actual or projected payments, are confidential (Victor Alert: Pension transparency legislation finally lands in Frankfort!, 2013). It’s difficult to understand how our public servant’s salaries are available to the public while they are working and when they retire their pensions are not accessible. Kentucky is behind many other states in regard to pension transparency according to Sunshine Review (Stacking up Kentucky’s public pension transparency, 2013).

Legislation filed by Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, requires the state’s public pension systems to finally be available to the public. The proposed policy in SB 57 would require the public pension information to be transparent and eventually made available in an online, searchable database (Victor Alert: Pension transparency legislation finally lands in Frankfort!, 2013).

Kentucky’s unfunded public pension liability is currently at $34.5 billion and is bankrupting our fair state. A transparent pension system would allow for accountability by exposing double- and triple-dipping legislators and members of the Kentucky Education Association and other private entities who are taking advantage of hard-earned taxpayer money (Victor Alert: Pension transparency legislation finally lands in Frankfort!, 2013).

What can you do? Call the Legislator Message Line at 1-800-372-7181 and tell the operator, “Taxpayers deserve a transparent pension system and to vote in favor of SB 57.” Request they send it to all elected officials in the Kentucky General Assembly.

Your voice can make a difference today! Make a two minute call now.

1-800-372-7181

Agenda 21 Into Covington

What do three federal agencies HUD (Housing and Urban Development), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and DOT (Department of Transportation) have in common?  When linked together they form the basis for Agenda 21 where the government controls everything you do.  Their website shows this project for Covington.  Read the novel, Agenda 21, by Glen Beck.  Lexington, Louisville, eastern Kentucky you are on the map too!