Daniella Tebib
News Editor
Emily Shepherd
Contributing Writer
Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear will square off in the first of five televised gubernatorial forums on Thursday, Oct. 3, in Paducah, Kentucky.
The event, hosted by the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce and WPSD-TV, will air live on the NBC affiliate and WKMS.
Beshear and Bevin are considered the top two candidates in the race for governor.
One of the key issues in this year’s election that impacts faculty, staff and students at Murray State is the pension crisis as it continues to affect the overall budget for the University.
The University administration has made several cuts to programs and services over the last year to make up for the additional pension costs. Most recently, dining and transportation services on campus were outsourced and a request for proposals went out in September to companies interested in taking over facilities management services.
The two candidates have vastly different ideas on how to fund the pension system.
Bevin signed a bill into law earlier this year that would allow colleges and universities, among other governmental agencies, to opt out of the Kentucky Employee Retirement System and move employees into a 401(k) retirement plan or continue in KERS at an increased rate. That rate would likely go from 49 to 89 percent in July 2020 for organizations that decided to stay in the state-sponsored program, a rate that President Bob Jackson said is not feasible for Murray State.
“This pension rate is unsustainable and places tremendous pressures on our budget and greatly impacts all areas of the University,” Jackson said.
University officials said at the September quarterly Board of Regents meeting, the University currently pays over $6 million into the KERS plan for about 338 employees. That figure would increase to nearly over $10.4 million next year.
If the University chose to leave the state’s pension system, it would have to pay unfunded liabilities either in a large lump sum or installments over the next 30 years.
The Murray State administration has until April 2020 to make a decision.
Madison Hillberry, co-president of College Democrats from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, said the pension crisis is an important issue on her mind during this election.
“With that being said, we need to elect a governor who has teachers and students at their best interest and one that will show they matter with tangible action,” Hillberry said.
The pension system currently has $13.6 billion in unfunded liabilities. Bevin has blamed previous administrations for allowing the pension system to get this far in debt but has signed legislation that would fully fund the pension, despite the opposition of his plan to do so.
“It’s why I was willing to take the slings and arrows of those who would kick the can down the road and withstand the political pressure that tried to convince me we couldn’t afford to fully fund our pension system,” Bevin said in a statement on his campaign website. “I did so because it was the right thing to do.”
Beshear has been critical of Bevin’s plan to fix the ailing system.
“When this governor tried to slash pensions, I went to the Supreme Court and personally argued for the promised pensions of more than 200,000 teachers, police officers, firefighters, EMS, social workers and nearly all city and county employees in Kentucky,” Beshear said on his campaign website.
Beshear recently announced he will support expanded gaming in Kentucky in an effort to help the pension system.
“As governor, I will work to legalize sports betting, casinos, fantasy sports and prepare for online poker, and use the revenue from these activities as a dedicated funding stream for our public pension system,” Beshear said in a statement on his campaign website.
Bevin spoke to a crowd at the Planters Bank-Jennie Stuart Health Sportsplex in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on Monday, Sept. 30. He was vocal about Beshear’s gaming plan to fix the pension.
“The people who tell you – including the guy I’m running against – that if we all just smoke pot and gamble, we could fix the problem,” Bevin said, according to an article published on the Hoptown Chronicle website. “We can’t.”
Another of Beshear’s top priorities is college affordability.
“I stopped Matt Bevin when he tried to illegally cut budgets of our universities and community colleges,” Beshear said in a statement on his campaign website. “As governor, I’ll fight to lower the costs of attending Kentucky’s public universities and community and technical colleges.”
While speaking to the media during an event on campus in March, Bevin said he wishes there were more funds for higher education but the pension system has to come first.
“The reality is you have to pay the bills,” Bevin said. “We’ve gotta pay our bills. So we’re going to fund the pension because we have a legal and moral obligation to do it. And we’re going to the best of our ability, with the money that’s left, fund everything we can.”
Bevin’s slogan of his re-election campaign is “Forward.” Bevin is running on the basis of his past four years of leadership bringing in 55,000 jobs, over $20 billion in new business investments and record education funding per pupil, according to his campaign website.
Other priorities for Bevin include tax reform, preserving Kentucky’s energy sector, health care reform and shrinking the size of government, according to his campaign website.
“Bevin is basically stating that if you give him another four years he’ll be able to complete what he’s been doing,” Paul Foote, associate professor of political science, said.
Beshear’s campaign website lists a number of priorities in addition to the ones mentioned above, including affordable health care, criminal justice reform, energy, equal pay, voting rights and fighting opioid abuse.
Abby Rock, president of College Republicans, said students should get out and vote in this election.
“Whatever party or candidate you support, it is important that you cast your ballot to show our public officials that the young voters are listening and that we want our concerns addressed,” Rock said.
Foote echoed Rock’s call for the Murray State community to vote in the Nov. 5 election.
“If the students want a more affordable tuition and to stop the increases they need to make sure that the governor looks into this issue to stop cutting our appropriations, that’s what’s causing the tuition increases,” Foote said. “The importance of the outcome will determine whether tuition goes up, it all comes down to the election.”
The deadline is Oct. 7 to register to vote. Kentucky residents can register to vote and students who aren’t from Calloway County can request that an absentee ballot be sent to their local address at vote.org/ky2019.
The News will be live at the Oct. 3 gubernatorial forum in Paducah with social media updates and complete coverage on TheNews.org throughout the day.
