Daviess County Fiscal Court has unanimously passed a resolution that supports separating the County Employees Retirement System, or CERS, from the Kentucky Retirement System. A vote at Thursday night's fiscal court meeting in Owensboro.
There are 250 Daviess County employees enrolled in the County plan. The resolution doesn't result in any change in law, but calls on the state legislature to break CERS away from KRS.
Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said separating the two systems won’t solve the pension crisis, but it’s something he hopes the state legislature will consider.
Kentucky’s General Assembly would have to approve a separation of the county retirement system from the state retirement system. Mattingly said the county system represents the majority of the state retirement plan's assets but doesn’t have majority representation on the governing board.
“While we’re the elephant in the room we don’t get to make a lot of the decisions with the majority of people. It’s just a way of saying we think that you need to take some action. We are concerned about our employees and their future pensions,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly said the CERS could do better if it’s allowed to separate from the Kentucky Retirement System or KRS. Governor Matt Bevin said he plans to call a special legislative session this fall to address the pension crisis.
