Interested in how much taxpayer money is being shelled out to retired legislators, judges and state workers in the form of public pensions? Too bad. You can’t find out. Regardless of the fact that public pensions are largely funded by Kentuckian’s tax dollars, Kentuckians remain in the dark about which public servants are receiving once they retire and how much.

What is difficult to understand is that in Kentucky, salary information for most of those same individuals is publicly accessible. Hard to understand how we can know how much a person is making while working for the state but not what they are paid once they aren’t working. Hmm…

Sunshine Review, a site dedicated to the ideas of government transparency, has started keeping track of how transparent states’ pension systems are. Sadly, Kentucky is not alone in this lack of transparency. I recommend taking a look at the fine work the Sunshine Review team has done as it illustrates the never-ending need for an open government.

If you are interested in the ugly truth about Kentucky’s pension crisis, you can read more here.