Republican leaders in the Louisville Metro Council are headed to Frankfort this week to lobby state lawmakers on pension reform.
The city’s pension cost has more than doubled in the past decade to make up approximately 15 percent of the budget. In his State of the City address, Mayor Greg Fischer urged residents to call for their legislators to take action in this year’s session to change the system.
Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Fleming, R-7, and Vice-Chairman Jerry Miller, R-19, are scheduled to meet with Republican state Sen. Damon Thayer of Georgetown, who co-chaired a legislative task force on the state pension system.
Miller says rising pension costs are at critical stage and are extremely important for Louisville residents because of the potential impact on city services.
"If you’re in government you have to deal with pension cost because of it’s dramatic increase, which is really crowding out a lot of other things we’d like to do—social services and a variety of other things," he says.