That didn't take long

Remember way back in June when Gov. Steve Beshear and the General Assembly got together to "fix" the public employee benefits system? They created payment schedules to get the funding of the various pension and health benefit plans up so the state might not go bankrupt.

They have already starting backing up on the deal.

Beshear promoted in a press conference today a bill by Rep. Mike Cherry that kicks the funding schedule for county governments' health plans to the curb.

Those plans were already $5.35 billion underfunded on June 30, before the stock market tanked. That is the most recent data available.

This move is being promoted as a $37.5 million bailout of the local governments. The point is that something will always come up that prevents our politicians from properly funding these liabilities.

The latest unfunded liability figure for all the public employee plans is $29 billion. There will never be an easy time to make those payments. If we continue the head-in-sand routine, we will soon face something much like what California now faces.