Serving Retired Teachers Since 1957 VOLUME LIV NUMBER 2 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY NOVEMBER 2019 Kay Hammond and Margaret Brown Walker Receive NRTA Recognition Award Th e NRTA With Our Youth! Program was established to provide opportunities for retired educators and youth to work together to address the needs of youth and the broader community. State and local retired educators association (REA) volunteers use the resources provided by NRTA to organize local self-sustaining service projects. Th e Pike County and Big Sandy District Retired Teachers Associations nominated Kay Hammond as candidate for the NRTA With Our Youth Award. Aft er she retired as a high school librarian in the public school system, L-R: Tim Abrams, KRTA Executive Director, she became a part-time librarian at her local university. During this “retired” season of her life, God began Kay Hammond, Pike County, Harold Wilson, to lead her on a new journey. She had always felt compassion for teenage girls that found themselves in an KRTA President unplanned pregnancy. She read in the local newspaper that a meeting was going to be held about the possibility of opening a pregnancy center in Pikeville. Seven people attended the meeting and that night the Appalachian Pregnancy Care Center (APCC) board was formed. Th ey decided to open a pregnancy center and she became the director. Th e pregnancy center has been open for almost 12 years. It is located downtown in Pikeville and is the only pregnancy center located in the farmost part of Eastern Kentucky. It serves 12 counties and parts of 3 states. It is an affi liate of Care Net. APCC off ers a comprehensive system of support and service for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies and their newborns. It provides necessary prenatal and postnatal education resources and helps new mothers avoid the pitfalls that oft en accompany an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Th e clients are connected with a broad-based network of support agencies in their community. APCC helps them L-R: Tim Abrams, KRTA Executive Director, make positive choices involving the health of themselves and their babies. Th e mothers are counseled about Margaret Brown Walker, Carroll County (Continued on Page 9) IN THIS ISSUE . Beshear: Mail Scammers Swindle $85,000 . .12 572 NRTA Recognition Award . 1 Protecting Your Loved One From Scams. 12 Community/School Service Project Grant . 12 PERSONALLY SPEAKING AROUND THE STATE P A I D I A P From the Executive Director . 2 permit permit prsrt std prsrt E’town/Hardin/Larue RTA. 13 u.s. postage u.s. louisville, ky louisville, Legislative Priorities Fift h District RTA . .13 A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT . 2 Garrard County RTA . 13 KRTA PARTNERS Glasgow Barren County RTA . 13 Liberty Mutual. 3 Nelson County RTA . .13 Adjusting to Winter Behind the Wheel Brown & Brown Insurance . 3 Graves County RTA . 13 Th is Surprising Expense. Nearly $1000 a Year Hart County RTA . 13 Air Land Sea Travel, LLC . 3 Knott County RTA . 13 Tours Available in 2020 Logan County RTA . 13 FALL WORKSHOPS 2019 Menifee County RTA . 13 Mercer County RTA . .14 PUBLICATION Teamwork Makes the Dream Work . 4 Health, Insurance & Wellness . .4 Northern District RTA . 14 KRTA & AARP Working Together . 4 Paducah/McCracken RTA . .14 QUARTERLY Pendleton County RTA. 14 A Teachers’ Retirement System of Kentucky . 5 Legislative . 7 Pike County RTA. 14 Membership . 7 Th ird District RTA . 14 Legislators Participating in Workshops . .8 Webster County RTA . .14 Presidents of the 14 Districts . 9 Wolfe County RTA . .14 Kentucky Retired Teachers Association Teachers Retired Kentucky Business Partners Participating in Workshops . .10 FOR YOUR INFORMATION . 15 YOUR HEALTH &SAFETY QUIPS, QUOTES & PUZZLES . 15 Let’s Talk About Your Health. .11 DECEASED RETIRED TEACHERS . 16 AARP Recruiting Volunteers for Tax Aide . .11 Emergency Contact Information for KY Drivers 11 Louisville, Kentucky 40291-3234 Kentucky Louisville, 7505 Bardstown Road Bardstown 7505 PAGE 2 KRTA NEWS NOVEMBER 2019 PERSONALLY SPEAKING . in the top 1% of public pension plans in the nation earnings net of $12.4 billion. Th is generated $2.9 billion for TRS above the average pension plan’s return. Changing the board make up and fi lling the vacancies with political appointees, as opposed to elected members, is against the interest of current and future benefi ciaries of TRS. KERS has a 17-member board—11 of which are political appointees—has been Legislative subject to politics, questionable investments, kickbacks, and scandals that have cost its benefi ciaries millions. Tim Abrams Priorities Th e Public Pension Oversight Board (PPOB) was established and made up of eight Executive Director members of the general assembly and six appointed citizens. Th e PPOB has the Th e 2020 session of the General power to prompt any of Kentucky’s retirement systems to disclose any of its activities Assembly is just around the corner. and make recommendations to the General Assembly to govern the systems. It will be important for lawmakers to continue to hear your voices. I wanted to 3. Kentucky must maintain the Defi ned Benefi t Pension System for current and provide you now with our KRTA’s legislative priorities and messages so we are future retirees. ready in 2020 to work together to protect the benefi ts we earned. Th e Defi ned Benefi t System is structurally sound and helps recruit and retain 1. Restore funding to the Medical Trust Fund in 2020, as agreed upon in Shared teachers at a time when we face worker shortages. If you fund the actuarial required Responsibility Agreement passed in 2010. contributions (ARC), the retirement system is the most taxpayer effi cient way of While the 2018 budget funded the fi rst year of the biennial budget, the second providing a dignifi ed retirement for teachers. Investment income generated from year relied on a budget surplus. Both years should be included In the 2020 budget capital contributions fund a majority of retirement benefi ts for retired teachers. as line items. Th e 2010 Shared Responsibility Plan was model legislation. Th e law Taxpayers only pay approximately a quarter of benefi t payouts. Each time the passed the 2010 General Assembly with no negative votes. Kentucky’s education legislature fails to make a $1.00 capital contribution, TRS misses out on an additional community stepped to the plate agreeing to provide new funding streams to right $1.00 in investment income over the next 10-years. Switching future teachers to a the ship. Kentucky became one of the few states to prefund teachers’ health care. cash balance plan hurts the solvency of the retirement system and provides less of a Th is lowered the state’s portion of the unfunded liability from $6.2 billion to $1.2 benefi t for the teacher leaving the profession. Proponents of cash balance plans try billion and helped bond ratings. Th is lowered the annual request to the state for to argue cash balance plans provide increased portability for teachers leaving the retiree health care from $170 million in fi scal 2008, to $70 million in 2020.Teachers, profession. Actually, for the 9 out of 10 teachers who leave the profession with less retired teachers under 65, and school districts have done their part. Th e state needs than 5 years of service, their TRS account generates $5,802 more to port than would to keep up its end of the deal and fully fund the TRS Medical Trust fund in the 2020 the CERS cash hybrid plan. Budget. 4. TRS must maintain fi nancial and administrative independence from 2. The board structure of TRS must not change. Changes, as proposed by the Kentucky’s other retirement systems. legislature in the 2019 session, would put TRS’ fi nancial and administrative TRS is nationally recognized for its risk and administrative management and has independence in jeopardy, leaving it susceptible to politics and agenda- consistently ranked near the top of public pension plans in the United States for its driven decisions. investment returns. TRS has maintained a well-balanced conservative investment Th ere is no need to change the structure of a board for an organization that is portfolio. TRS has never invested in hedge funds, subprime mortgages, or allowed nationally recognized as a leader and admired by other state pension systems or used placement agents for investments. Th e TRS actuary has stated that as long as across the country. full funding continues, there will be suffi cient money available to pay the promised benefi ts to Kentucky’s Retired Teachers. TRS retirement annuity trust returns as of June 30, 2018 for a ten-year period were (Continued on Page 11) Th ere is already a 13 percent drop in enrollment in the colleges of education in PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE . Kentucky colleges. Instead of the 62% state budget going to education in the 80’s, it is now closer to Harold Wilson 50% funded. Revenue is the problem. Th ere are over $13 billion of exemptions compared to a Kentucky budget of $11.5 billion. State exemptions aff ect retired teachers, too. Over a half billion dollars were exempted for corporate Kentucky Fall is now upon us, and all district workshops have been in the last full session while revenues were short. We all know that our state and held. My gratitude and thanks go to all the district presidents national economy depends on an educated workforce. and contacts who help make these conferences a success. My thanks also go to all members and legislators who attended. As we go forward, there are still some concerns about our pension’s inviolable contract A special thanks goes to TRS representatives and the KRTA in the future.