A RESOLUTION urging the Legislature and the Governor of the State of Kansas to fully fund all
KPERS obligations, to stop delaying KPERS employer contributions payments and to fund a
cost-of-living adjustment for retired members of KPERS.
WHEREAS, Many senior Kansans are members and participants in the Kansas Public
Employees Retirement System (KPERS); and
WHEREAS, Active KPERS members have always been required to make their full contribution
each month; and
WHEREAS, Active KPERS Tier 1 members were required by law to increase such members’
contribution from 4% to 6% beginning January 1, 2015; and
WHEREAS, KPERS members expect their employer to likewise contribute diligently each
month and trust the elected officials of the State of Kansas to uphold their end of the law by funding
KPERS as prescribed by state statute; and
WHEREAS, State of Kansas employees recently went eight years without a pay raise; and
WHEREAS, In 2015, the Legislature approved a $1,000,000,000 pension obligation bond issue,
and in 2021, the Legislature approved a $500,000,000 pension obligation bond issue, with the proceeds
of each bond issue deposited into the KPERS trust fund. The pension obligation bonds are 30-year
maturity bonds requiring annual debt service payments from the state general fund; and
WHEREAS, The State of Kansas has shorted the system many times and has delayed KPERS
employer contribution payments to build a more positive state general fund balance. Such delays in
contribution payments and continual underfunding by the Legislature and the Governor put the entire
KPERS program in both short-term and long-term jeopardy; and
WHEREAS, The Legislature’s actions to increase employer contributions in recent years,
including making contributions at the full actuarially required contribution rate for the past two years,
are greatly appreciated; and
WHEREAS, Increased employer contributions have helped to increase the funded ratio of
KPERS from a low of 56% in 2012 to an improved 72.5% as of the December 31, 2020, valuation; and
WHEREAS, A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is a change in one’s monthly retirement
benefit to help keep up with increasing prices; and
WHEREAS, For Kansan retirees in the KPERS retirement system, COLAs help ensure that
their purchasing power remains the same no matter how long they may live and how quickly prices
might rise; and
WHEREAS, A COLA is even more important to retirees who do not receive social security
because without their pension’s COLA, they may have no other retirement income that adjusts to
inflation; and
WHEREAS, It has been 23 years since the last COLA took effect for KPERS retirees: Now,
therefore,
Be it resolved by the Silver Haired Legislature of the State of Kansas: That we urge the
Legislature and the Governor of the State of Kansas to fully fund KPERS each year, to stop delaying
employer contribution payments and to fund a cost-of-living adjustment for retired members of
KPERS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A RESOLUTION urging the Legislature and the Governor of the State of Kansas to fully fund allKPERS obligations, to stop delaying KPERS employer contributions payments and to fund acost-of-living adjustment for retired members of KPERS. WHEREAS, Many senior Kansans are members and participants in the Kansas PublicEmployees Retirement System (KPERS); and WHEREAS, Active KPERS members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":546,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-555","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/555\/revisions\/557"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kansas-shl.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}