Kentucky's budget director says the state will need nearly an extra billion dollars every year to fix the state's public pension system.
John Chilton says the state will need $700 million per year to pay toward its pension systems for state workers and teachers. Plus, the state will need an extra $200 million to put into the state's reserves.
To find this money, lawmakers would have to make deep cuts in the state's annual operating budget. If lawmakers exclude services like public education and Medicaid, it would require budget cuts of 34.4 percent. Chilton said lawmakers could cut $510 million from K-12 education funding to soften the severity of the cuts. If they did that, it would require budget cuts of 16.8 percent.
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