Steve Mitchell, chief of the Owensboro Fire Department, was one of several local officials and department heads who went to the Owensboro Convention Center on Tuesday to hear Gov. Matt Bevin make his case for why the state's public pension systems need change.
Bevin, who is expected to call a special legislative session this year for lawmakers to consider pension reform, said the public employee and teacher pensions are running deficits, which Bevin believes are $60 billion or higher. The pensions, Bevin said, don't have enough money to make required payments to retirees into the future, and legislators have said previously there are more retirees drawing a pension than there are state workers.