McGarvey's 'Recap of the Special Session:' GOP majority 'labored mightily and brought forth a gnat'

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sen. McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, has earned unanimous endorsements from the Kentucky State AFL-CIO.

By STATE SEN. MORGAN McGARVEY 

There are so many cliches that fit this moment.

The special session of the General Assembly on pensions for quasi-government and higher education employees ended, “not with a bang but with a whimper.”

The Republican majority “labored mightily and brought forth a gnat,” by submissively giving Gov. Matt Bevin the unwise, unfair legislation he demanded in his unconstitutionally narrow session call.

Lawmakers who are always eager to tout their Christian fidelity seem to have forgotten the wisdom of Matthew 7, which commands, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.” Approving the Governor’s bill was the easy way out - or in, depending on which way you look at it. The Majority Party took it, instead of pushing forward along the more difficult path of actual legislating.

Democrats offered two creative, workable alternative proposals, but they were either (1) ruled out of order for falling outside the Governor’s instructions or (2) quickly brushed aside on party-line votes.

Republicans charged into this session with all the confidence of Maverick, the oh-so-cocky Navy pilot in “Top Gun.” You remember his mantra: “I feel the need for speed.” Mav's instructor, Charlie, cautions him, “You’re not going to be happy unless you’re going Mach 2 with your hair on fire.” Sadly, this special session embraced speed over substance and politics over policy, as the majority rammed the Governor’s plan, House Bill 1, to passage. Never mind that this legislation:

• Fails to address the unfunded liability. This bill actually increases our unfunded liability by $827 million according to the required actuarial analysis accompanying the legislation, but we never took the time to even discuss revenue options. (By the way, North Carolina just became the 17thstate to legalize sports gambling and Colorado receives over $20 million per month in state funds from cannabis sales.) 

• Incentivizes quasi-governmental agencies (regional universities, local health departments, rape crisis centers and others) into forcing their workers out of KERS, which undermines the system’s finances on which current retirees depend and breaks the state’s promise of secure retirement for current employees. (See above: this will cost us an additional $827 million.) 

• Hurts workers. (It will cost some current employees as much as $ 100,000 or more in retirement benefits.) 

• Makes costly litigation almost inevitable, in order to sort through all of the problems with the Governor’s bill. 

Since the announcement of a “Top Gun” sequel has me thinking about summer blockbusters, how pertinent is this line from “Jurassic Park,” in which the decision to clone dangerous dinosaurs is challenged? Jeff Goldblum’s character, Ian, chides the park’s owner, John Hammond, saying, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” 

Republicans have super majorities in both state legislative chambers, so they could do as they pleased on pensions for quasi and university employees, but should they have used their dominance to heedlessly hatchet the system, harm current employees, and hamper recruitment of future talent? Not everybody in the majority caucus thought so, in either the House (where the vote count was shockingly close) or the Senate. But when all was said and done, we did lose.

There’s a point in “Top Gun” when Iceman’s sidekick, Slider, warns, “Remember, boys, no points for second place.” That may apply when you’re shooting down fighter jets in combat, but it's not true when legislating.

We didn’t stop HB 1, but we got our messages out: (1) This is a bad bill, (2) It will damage workers’ and KERS’ finances, (3) It presages more of the same, despite Republican denials.

The Frankfort GOP majority forced a flawed HB 1 past all other alternatives, and we’ll have to fix the mistakes when we meet in regular session, a scant few months from now. Along the way, Republicans hotly denied that this is just a first step toward shifting all state pension responsibility from government to employees.

Well, sure it is. First, it’s long been a page in the national Republican playbook. Second, the actuarial analysis for HB 1 states, “Legislation providing a cessation window with the use of alternative provisions may create a precedent for other participating employers to lobby for the enactment of similar legislation on a temporary or permanent basis. Enactment of any such similar legislation could result in continual increased cost and risk for the remaining participating employers in those systems.” That’s a fancy way of saying “lots of other state agencies are going to try this if it works and it’s going to cost you (the taxpayers) a lot more money.”

I am reminded of the final lines in the great American novel by Scott Fitzgerald, which are so iconic that they have become something of a cliche: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” HB 1 blows us backward, but it didn’t have to. We just have to work harder over the interim and come together when we reconvene in January. Pensions should not be a partisan problem and we have to move past this latest ideological effort by the Governor if we are to go forward.

My Senate colleagues know where I’m coming from, sort of how Jason Isbell says in one of his better lyrics, “everybody knows you in a speed trap town.” Isbell sings about an unhappy fellow boozing it up under the bleachers at a high school football game, worrying about his sick Daddy and wondering whether he should start life over somewhere else. He finally decides, “I’ll sleep until I’m straight enough to drive, then decide if there’s anything that can’t be left behind.”

As frustrating as things can be at times, I can't give up on Frankfort. I'd have to leave too much unfinished business behind.