2025 Regular Session - Day 29 - HB 694 Veto Override Comments, Majority Whip Nemes

I was hoping on my birthday I wouldn't get a little bit rattled, a little bit upset. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Let me tell you about broken promises. Let me tell you about teachers who've earned a pension and earned health care and lies were told to them and money was kept from them and the rug was pulled out from under their feet. For 20 years our teachers went to work, our state workers went to work, and the legislature on the other side before this majority took over, they didn't fund their pensions. Making the futures of our teachers in jeopardy, jeopardizing their futures. They didn't fund them. They took hundreds of millions of dollars that should have went to pensions and they put them in pet projects. They put them in basketball courts all over this commonwealth of Kentucky. Now we don't talk much about pensions anymore because this majority has taken funding pensions seriously. We've not only for the first time in 20 years funded the actuarial required contributions since 2017 all the way today, every single budget since then, since we've taken over and the gentleman from McCracken and the gentleman from Todd has been in charge of our budgets. We've not only funded the statutorily required contributions, we've also funded billions of dollars more. Billions of dollars that could have went to other things but had to go where they were promised and where my friends on the other side for 20 years didn't fund. So don't talk to me about broken promises. Don't come in here and talk about broken promises when this majority is the one that has secured our teachers futures, including my wives and many former teachers in this room. Let me tell you what this bill does. What this bill does is it says when the health care portion, because our teacher or all of our retirement sections, they have retirement and then they have a health care portion. When the health care portion of the teacher retirement is fully funded at 100% then it takes that money, it doesn't take any of these dollars for other things, it takes that money and it puts them into teacher retirements to further secure their future. So this is not some nefarious thing and I want our teachers to know we're not taking any money from you. We're putting the money right back into your pensions which is what this majority has done since 2017 when the other side they made a lot of pretty promises but they didn't fund your pensions for 20 years. Follow the money not the words. Thank you Mr. Speaker.