The Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS-Non-Hazardous) is already notorious for being one of the worst funded pension plans in the United States.
But the situation got worse Wednesday, as KERS revealed the funding status of the plan has fallen from 23 percent to 21 percent over the course of the last fiscal year.
Retiree advocacy group Kentucky Government Retirees issued this statement:
The audit committee of Kentucky Retirement Systems learned today that the funding ratio for the pension plan covering most state employees dropped to an alarming 21 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The funding ratio compares current assets to total long-term liabilities. The KERS non-hazardous fund dropped by 2.1 percentage points over the fiscal year. Meanwhile, the fund continued to lose assets in the first three months of the fiscal year. The fund held only $2.48 billion in assets at the end of September, representing a decline of $95 million. Given these alarming figures, and in view of the commendable efforts of the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System to secure funding for its financially challenged pension plan, we as stakeholders urge the KRS board of trustees to actively engage Frankfort decision makers in a funding solution for the nation’s worst-funded state pension plan.