Kentucky’s 2023 GOP ticket has a history of undermining workers’ pensions

Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, his party’s nominee in this November’s gubernatorial election, apologized recently for the way he and his party have treated public educators. But he and his running mate, state Sen. Robby Mills, have repeatedly worked to eliminate or undermine educators’ pensions and those of other public servants.

Cameron and Mills are challenging incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.

In a late July speech to school administrators, Cameron acknowledged that many would be hesitant to vote for any GOP candidate. He said: “I also want to say I’m sorry. Sorry if me or anyone in my party has ever given you the impression that we don’t appreciate you or that we don’t respect you. Let me assure you that the Republican Party in this state under my leadership will show that we do — not only in word but in deed.”

According to the Associated Press, that apology was a reference to Republican former Gov. Matt Bevin’s history of attacks on teachers and a GOP-led assault on Kentucky teachers’ pension plans.

In the final days of the 2018 session, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Legislature passed legislation to eliminate guaranteed pension benefits for new teachers and to reduce benefits for some current educators. Bevin signed it into law and said it didn’t go far enough.

Beshear, then Kentucky’s attorney general, filed a lawsuit to challenge the new law. The Kentucky Supreme Court struck it down that December on procedural grounds.

Asked if he would have done the same thing as Beshear, Cameron said in an October 2019 attorney general candidates debate that he would not: “Ultimately, our responsibility is to enforce and defend those laws that are passed by the General Assembly.”

In a February 2016 letter to the Gleaner newspaper of Henderson, Kentucky, Mills praised the idea of “cutting back”; he backed the 2018 bill. After it was struck down in court, he reportedly said the Legislature should resurrect it.

Mills also proposed bills in 2017 and 2018 that he said were intended to “start the process of stopping Legislators from qualifying for a pension.”

As attorney general, Cameron came under fire from advocates for open government when he issued an opinion weakening Kentucky’s open meetings laws, allowing the Kentucky Public Pension Authority to hide its actions in a recent pension vote.

“We find ourselves in a place where we are precluded from knowing whether a closed session is authorized, on what public business elected agency members voted in closed session, and how they voted. In the final analysis, we are denied the ability to hold the members accountable,” Kentucky Open Government Coalition co-founder Amye Bensenhaver wrote in a July 31 blog post. “Just as Daniel Cameron would have it.”

As a gubernatorial candidate, Cameron has repeatedly promised to keep environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies out of Kentucky’s pension fund decisions.

“Politicians and radical liberals have decided how they’re going to invest your money,” he said in a Feb. 6 press release. “On day one as your next Governor, I will fight back.”

An analysis by the firm Econsult Solutions Inc. for the pro-clean-energy nonprofit Sunrise Project found that a ban on investing in funds that consider ESG issues when making investments for Kentucky’s bonds would cost the commonwealth between $26 million and $70 million due to decreased competition.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.