Limitations and exclusions on increases in creditable compensation in last five years of service in General Assembly for members retiring on or after January 1, 2018 -- Exceptions for bona fide promotion or career development - - Exclusion -- Determination by board -- Administrative regulations -- Inapplicability to hybrid cash balance participants
KRS 6.518
in effect6.518. Limitations and exclusions on increases in creditable compensation in last five years of service in General Assembly for members retiring on or after January 1, 2018 -- Exceptions for bona fide promotion or career development - - Exclusion -- Determination by board -- Administrative regulations -- Inapplicability to hybrid cash balance participants
(1) For purposes of this section, "bona fide promotion or career advancement":
(a) Means a professional advancement in substantially the same line of work held by the member in the four (4) years immediately prior to the final five (5) annual years preceding retirement or a change in employment position based on the training, skills, education, or expertise of the member that imposes a significant change in job duties and responsibilities to clearly justify the increased compensation to the member; and
(b) Does not include any circumstance in which a legislator participating in the Legislators' Retirement Plan takes a position of employment with an employer participating in any of the other state-administered retirement systems.
(2) (a) For members retiring on or after January 1, 2018, the plan shall, for each of the retiring member's last five (5) annual years of service in the General Assembly or with any employer participating in any of the state-administered retirement systems, identify any annual year in which the creditable compensation used to calculate benefits in the Legislators' Retirement Plan increased at a rate of ten percent (10%) or more annually over the immediately preceding annual year's creditable compensation.
(b) Except as limited or excluded by subsections (3) and (4) of this section, any amount of increase in creditable compensation for an annual year identified under paragraph (a) of this subsection that exceeds ten percent (10%) more than the member's creditable compensation from the immediately preceding annual year shall not be included in the creditable compensation used to calculate the member's monthly pension benefits. If the creditable compensation for a specific annual year identified under paragraph (a) of this subsection as exceeding the ten percent (10%) increase limitation is not used to calculate the retiring member's monthly pension benefits, then no reduction in creditable compensation shall occur for that annual year. Reductions to creditable compensation as provided by this paragraph shall include any creditable compensation used to calculate the retiring member's benefits, including creditable compensation earned in another state-administered retirement system.
(c) If the creditable compensation of the retiring member is reduced as provided by paragraph (b) of this subsection, the retirement system shall, notwithstanding KRS 21.460 and as applicable, refund the member contributions attributable to the reduction in creditable compensation.
(3) In order to ensure the prospective application of the limitations on increases in creditable compensation contained in subsection (2) of this section, only the creditable compensation earned by the retiring member on or after July 1, 2017, shall be subject to reduction under subsection (2) of this section. Creditable compensation earned by the retiring member prior to July 1, 2017, shall not be subject to reduction under subsection (2) of this section.
(4) Subsections (2) and (3) of this section shall not apply to increases that are the direct result of a bona fide promotion or career advancement.
(5) The Judicial Form Retirement System board of trustees shall determine whether increases in creditable compensation during the last five (5) annual years of employment prior to retirement constitute a bona fide promotion or career advancement and may promulgate administrative regulations in accordance with KRS Chapter 13A to administer this section. All state-administered retirement systems shall cooperate to implement this section.
(6) This section shall not apply to employees participating in the hybrid cash balance plan as provided by KRS 21.402.
Effective: July 14, 2022
History: Repealed, reenacted, and amended 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 55, sec. 4, effective July 14, 2022. -- Amended 2018 Ky. Acts ch. 107, sec. 2, effective July 14, 2018. -- Created 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 125, sec. 1, effective March 27, 2017. Legislative Research Commission Note (12/13/2018). On December 13, 2018, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the passage of 2018 SB 151 (2018 Ky. Acts ch. 107), did not comply with the three-readings rule of Kentucky Constitution Section 46 and that the legislation is, therefore, constitutionally invalid and declared void. That ruling applies to changes made to this statute in that Act.
Source: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (legislature.ky.gov)URL: https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=52631Fetched: 10/20/2026