KRS Participating Agencies

Who belongs to the Kentucky Retirement Systems?

The short answer is state, county and state police employees. But that is not the complete answer. Actually no one except the retirement systems staff knows.

From the Listing of Participating Agencies:

PUBLICATION NO. 3, REVISED MARCH 2004

Note: Over time several agencies have merged or no longer participate in the retirement systems. If you have a question regarding a particular agency not provided in this listing please contact the retirement office.

So we really don’t know if the information on this page is accurate or not but for argument sake let’s assume the information is accurate.

So who is on the list aside from the usual suspects? Here are a few.

Ky. Council of Area Development Districts

“The Kentucky Council of Area Development Districts (KCADD) is an organization representing all ADD Board members throughout the state. The Kentucky Association of District Directors (KADD) is an organization of the fifteen ADD Executive Directors. In 1995, KCADD and KADD hired a full-time Information Director and opened an office in Frankfort to coordinate network information flow in the state capital.”

Kentucky Association for Community Action

“The Kentucky Association for Community Action, Inc., is a 501(C)3, not-for-profit corporation domiciled in and registered with the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency

The Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency (KIPDA) is an association of local governments in a nine-county region of southern Indiana and north central Kentucky.

Appalachian Research & Defense Fund

The Appalachian Citizens Law Center is a non-profit law firm in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. We provide free legal services to persons and citizens' groups who have legal issues related to coal mining, logging, drilling, and other resource-related practices in Central Appalachia

Kentucky Educational Development Corporation

Kentucky Educational Development Corporation (KEDC) was established in 1969 as a nonprofit corporation exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

So it would appear that Kentucky Retirement Systems has members that are 501(c)(3) non-profits that are at least partially funded by tax payer dollars.

Should the Kentucky Retirement Systems assume the responsibility for the retirement accounts for these non-profit corporations?

If it is proper to fund non-profit corporation retirements with tax dollars should more of the thousands of 501(c)(3)’s in Kentucky be allowed or required to participate?

The bottom line here is that the Kentucky Retirement Systems is more than just the agency handling state employee retirement. The KRS is a government agency with minimal external oversight that has connections to multiple levels of government in Kentucky including quasi-governmental corporations managing billions of dollars.

As fiefdoms go this is pretty sweet.