State Retiree Benefits Fact Sheet – Kansas

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State Retiree Benefits Fact Sheet – Kansas

Kansas is lagging behind many other states when it comes to managing its long-term bill coming due for pensions. The state has fallen short of meeting its annual payments toward its long-term pension obligation for each of the last 10 years. In the last several years, Kansas' payments have dropped to a little less than 70% of what the state's own actuaries say is needed to keep up, hitting a low of 63% of the required contribution in 2006. Kansas has undertaken significant pension reform in the last year, however. On the non-pensions side, Kansas is one of seven states that had not completed its actuarial valuation of the long-term costs of retiree health benefits at the time of Pew's report. But the liability likely will be small relative to that of other states. Kansas does not offer a cash subsidy, but only the “implicit subsidy” that comes from including retirees and typically healthier active employees in the same health plan.

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