Rejecting Tax Plan Proves KY Repugs Want to Kill Pensions, Not Save Them

Oh, look, guys:  an actual tax reform plan that raises $600 million to save employee pensions while preserving essential programs and making the greedhead rich start paying their fair share.

But no.  That's not what the repugs who own KY state government want.  They want an excuse to to the state economy into Haiti. Destroying the lives of 35,000 state employees is just gravy.

From the Herald:

State Rep. James Kay, D-Versailles, last week filed a package of five bills that could collect more than $600 million a year in fresh revenue for Kentucky’s ailing public pension systems with taxes on tobacco, prescription opiates and outsourced labor and potentially raise even more money by scrutinizing the state’s long-unexamined tax breaks.

But Kay’s plan appears dead on arrival.

House Speaker Pro Tem David Osborne, R-Prospect, on Friday said the Republican-led House of Representatives won’t consider any bills during this legislative session that simply raise additional revenue — not even for the state’s $40 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.

SNIP

In an interview outside Osborne’s Capitol office, Kay said he isn’t surprised that his bills are doomed. For all of the talk of a “pension crisis” in Frankfort, Republican leaders in the General Assembly won’t consider anyone’s ideas but their own, which focus on cutting retirement benefits for teachers and other public workers, he said.
 

“I’ve worked on this comprehensive plan for three years,” said Kay, who is a member of the Public Pension Oversight Board.

“I presented this plan in its raw form to the pension oversight board, and it got no response,” Kay said. “I presented this plan to House leadership; same reaction. The current approach is to cut benefits and not to raise revenue. They don’t want to look at anything that’s outside of that box. They want to solve this problem on the backs of state employees and teachers.”

James Kay for Governor, goddammit.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article199676599.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article199676599.html#storylink=cpy