via The State Journal,
by Brad Bowman, state-journal.com,
November 30, 2015
Kenton County Sheriff’s Deputy Damian Stanton will retire in January of next year and he is unsure after his 39 years of service if he, like many state retirees, will receive his pension benefits before the state’s ailing system reaches insolvency.
Stanton filed a lawsuit against the Kentucky Retirement System (KRS) Board in September similar to the Northern Kentucky City of Fort Wright’s lawsuit arguing KRS doesn’t have the authority to make certain investments from funds in the County Employees Retirement System it manages.
In front of the Public Pension Oversight Board last week, Stanton told committee members he had 19 more working days until his retirement after 39 years and 10 months of service. During that time, Stanton has paid into the CERS hazardous pension system.
“Today several times things are coming down to fees, undisclosed fees,” Stanton said. “Why are we paying so much? While some Kentuckians bleed blue and others bleed cardinal red, the Kentucky Retirement Systems bleeds green. It’s time to stop this bleeding.
“As a member of CERS, I expect to receive the benefit I applied for. I’m concerned when the cost to secure those benefits has driven down the funding level over the last fiscal year.”
Citing the recently released KRS comprehensive report, Stanton said for fiscal year 2014-2015 CERS pension fund dropped from 59.8 percent funded to 58 percent funded and the KERS non-hazardous pension fund dropped from 21 percent to 19 percent funding.