FRANKFORT- The second meeting of the Public Pension Working Group was held Thursday. 

The meeting was focused on the Teachers Retirement Systems. TRS is the most funded of the three systems, but still faces a $14.3 billion unfunded liability. 

Teachers have been the most vocal opponents to the pension reform bill passed last session. The analysis of their pensions showed that the average teacher isn't cashing in on their retirement, in fact about half of teachers are making a modest income from their pensions. 

"54 percent of our retirees are receiving less than $40,000 in Fiscal Year 18. 89 percent received less than $60,000," said Beau Barnes, Deputy Executive Secretary and General Counsel, TRS. "Less than one percent received more than $100,000. So .09 percent received more than $100,000. Again we are looking at how they compensate individuals who worked longer. Careers of retirees receiving between $20,000 to $40,000 averaged 26 years." 

The presentation was cut short before the inviolable contract and the 2018 pension legislation were discussed. Working Group Co-Chair Wil Schroder,R-Wilder, says they will discuss the rest of the presentation at a later meeting. 

Despite the large amount of information being presented to lawmakers, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, thinks there is a fifty-fifty shot they will get a bill crafted this session. 

"Because of prior experience and prior requests over the past two years, people have a lot more information prepared and ready to go that will make it easier if we can come to a conclusion or a consensus or if we want to draft competing bills," he said. "I'm not saying there may not be a consensus among people. I think it will be easier to put something together from any perspective because of previous work that's been done."

The next meeting is Tuesday, January 22.