Stan Geiger

Are Kansans Smarter than Oklahomans?

Terry Hood's story comparing Oklahoma's infrastructure to that of Kansas' is in the books. I watched. It was a good piece---except for one minor deficiency. While Hood noted the shortchanging of highways and bridges since the '80s, she made no mention at all of the monumental increase in education funding over that same period of time. I don't think you can tell one story without telling the other.

I found Neal McCaleb's appearance in the story interesting. He said we are paying for good roads but not getting them. It seems he's had a change of heart. A couple of years ago, McCaleb was at the forefront of an effort to increase the state gasoline tax.

A change of heart is understandable, of course. The proposal to hike the gas tax went to a statewide vote and took the worst beating I believe I've ever seen a tax-increase proposal take.

Hood's story said Kansas' infrastructure is in much better condition than Oklahoma's. The reason is quite simple: When it comes to infrastructure, you get what you pay for. Kansas, Hood said, spends 3 times the money Oklahoma spends on highways on a per-mile basis.

As I've noted many times, Oklahoma has thrown way too much money into education. But I don't see that Kansas is any less insane in that regard. The average teacher pay figures in the two states are similar. The per-pupil spending in the two states is similar. Bill Self gets paid over a million bucks a year to coach KU's basketball team---just like his counterparts at OU and OSU.

Yet even though Kansas has a smaller population to tax and much less energy production to tax, Kansas politicians seem to have no problem finding the money to properly maintain the state's infrastructure. So why is that?

A good part of the answer might lie in the area of public pensions.

I took a cyber walk and found the website of an organization called the Coalition of Kansas Public Retirees (www.ksretirees.org). As I read the organization's argument in favor of a cost-of-living adjustment for Kansas Public Employee's Retirement System (KPERS) pensioners, I came across some interesting facts.

Oklahoma, of course, has the Oklahoma Public Employee's Retirement System (OPERS). It also has the Oklahoma Teachers' Retirement System (OTRS). Kansas has no teacher pension fund. Way back in 1971, Kansas' teacher retirement system was merged into KPERS.

That move alone has probably saved Kansans a ton of tax money. There is less overhead involved with running one pension system as opposed to two. And educators in Kansas get no special treatment; they are on the same playing field with other state retirees.

OTRS, at last report, is facing a $7 billion actuarial deficit. In other words, the OTRS is committed to giving $7 billion that it doesn't have to retired educators in the coming years. That, by any other name, is debt. And it's a debt that will be paid by Oklahoma taxpayers if something isn't done to change things.

I recall reading a Tulsa World report in the mid '90s. That report said the OTRS unfunded liability was about $4 billion at the time. Obviously, the debt has nearly doubled in the years since.

Educators complain the state isn't putting enough money in the fund, in attempting to explain the ever-increasing tab owed to them. I'd say the problem is excessive benefits. The Legislature, in the mid '90s, acted to remove a once-existing cap on educator pensions. Nowadays, the sky's the limit. And since educator pay continues to rise and the cost of benefits provided to educators continues to rise, future pensions get bigger with each passing year.

Politicians recently moved to shore up the pension fund's financial condition---in the short term---by increasing what schools have to contribute to the fund. That's just a game of musical chairs being played with tax money. The state gives money to schools, then schools put it in the pension fund so the fund can cover its checks.

Out of control retirement benefits for public employees eat tax money---a lot of tax money. Kansas, it appears, has an eye to that problem. Oklahoma doesn't.

Recently reported was the case of a retired Oklahoma official that is drawing a $147,000 annual OPERS pension. This guy is drawing a taxpayer-subsidized pension big enough to put him in the top 10 percent of earners in the nation. That's absurd. And it's made even more absurd by the fact that the guy never got paid more than $83,000 while on the job.

KPERS, it seems, is not so free with its benefits. The Coalition website says the average monthly check written by KPERS is $1,000. That's 12 grand per year.

The Coalition is pushing for a COLA, and is apparently meeting resistance. The plan on the table calls for a 3 percent increase, to be awarded at 1 percent per year, compounded, for 3 years.

The World recently reported OPERS retirees are lobbying lawmakers for an automatic increase of 2 percent per year, compounded, every year. The report said the pensioners have, in fact, been getting 2 percent annual bumps for some time. It's just that the way things currently work the Legislature has to vote the increase, so the politicians have been skipping a year then handing out 4 percent increases during election years. Go figure.

KPERS retirees, meanwhile, got their last COLA in 1998.

Are Kansans smarter than Oklahomans? I'd say a case could be made. I mean at least Kansans aren't dumb enough to let their roads and bridges rot while people that used to work government jobs line their pockets with taxpayer money.

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