Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin saying that state employees are bankrupting his state is false. A report is falsely claiming that Bevin was quoted as saying that state employees were hurting the state’s budget.
Where did this fake news originate? React365 published an article reporting that Bevin was quoted as saying that “state employees are bankrupting the state.” You can read the fake news below.
Frankfort, KY
This morning, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin held a live session on his Facebook page detailing his proposal to change Kentucky state employee pension plans. As a part of the new framework he outlined, new employees will be placed in a 401K pension plan but current employees will remain in the pension plan. “We are keeping the promise of the pension” Bevin said. However the governor offered no outline as a way to pay for the current unfunded liability within the Kentucky Retirement System which is estimated to be over $30 billion dollars. When asked about paying for the unfunded liability and retiree defined benefit pensions, Bevin said “we will do our best to make sure the funds are there for our retirees.”
Bevin repeated his comments that state employees have “gamed the system for far too long” by not retiring at the end of their 27 years of service. “Teachers continue to hoard sick days in order to have a higher pension. Those days are over.”
However, the above story is false, according to Hoax Alert. There research found no quote attributed to Bevin along the lines of saying that state employees are bankrupting the state of Kentucky.
Here are examples of people sharing the false news on social media.
Kentucky Governor Bevin: State employees are bankrupting the state https://t.co/j2TbZdMspy
— Terry Eidson (@teidson) October 19, 2017
Kentucky Governor Bevin: State employees are bankrupting the state https://t.co/314xKMoaHE
— Suzie Q Gentry (@SuzanGentry) October 19, 2017
Bevin said in August 2017, that state workers, including teachers, were “hoarding sick days” and using them to boost their retirement benefits. Bevin took questions from state workers on Facebook, including one about whether dramatic pension changes might prompt a wave of teacher retirements.
“If you happen to be a teacher who would walk out on your classroom in order to serve what’s in your own personal best interest at the expense of your children, you probably should retire. And yet I know for a fact that almost all of you teachers that are watching this don’t think that way.”
With regards to the React365 article, the site is a prank website where anyone can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles. It would be then reasonable to see that someone took some comments and exaggerated upon them for political purposes.
On Oct. 18, Bevin legislators presented a 10-point plan that he said will fix Kentucky’s ailing pension system, fully funding state workers’ pensions in 30 years. Bevin called it “Keeping the Promise.”
“When we first began — I don’t think it’s telling tales out of school — we were looking to try to resolve this problem more expediently than we ultimately have come up with. We’ve come up with a plan that will save this over the course of the next 30 years. It takes more time, but it will allow us to deliver on the promise.”
What did you think of the fake news that Bevin said that state employees are bankrupting the state? Did you believe it or see people sharing it falsely on social media? Let us know in the comments section.
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