Groups representing retired public employees want Kansas lawmakers to provide annual cost-of-living increases to their pension checks. State Sen. Jeff King, who chaired a committee which studied the KPERS system and recommended reforms, told an Associated Press reporter it would be irresponsible to increase pension payments without increased income.
Such income could only come from the state general fund or higher deductions from public employee paychecks.
KPERS now has a $9.2 billion gap between anticipated income and projected payments to retirees between now and 2033. More revenue will be needed to keep the program afloat. Giving cost of living increases would, indeed, be irresponsible without substantially higher deductions from worker wages or much larger annual appropriations from the general fund.
The 39 organizations who asked for the perk should go back to their members and ask them to recommend how much more current workers should pay into the system to make a COLA possible or which state taxes should be hiked to further subsidize KPERS.
It is safe to predict a stony silence in response.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
