By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. —
The State of Kansas is in the position of having a large surplus of cash right now. There are many thoughts about whether and how to reduce taxes and also about funding long-term obligations. One thought is further funding the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.
"You do have the one time part, which is the $3 billion, that you would presumably be trying to get down to $1 billion or less," Waggoner said Friday. "The notion of a rainy-day fund...but, particularly KPERS is a great example."
More funding toward KPERS would improve future budgets.
"The difference that taking $500 million of it, or I've even heard $1 billion of it, to actually shore up KPERS so it gets past the 80% fully funded, you also reduce the effective... there's also sort of like an interest rate that we have to pay on some money that we had borrowed earlier. If you pay off that, it's like paying off your mortgage, so you start saving a lot of interest expense, which actually makes going forward, the state budget in a better situation."
KPERS is 72.5% funded – up more than 16% since 2012, but the current unfunded liability is at $8.5 billion.