FRANKFORT, Ky- Lawmakers will be back in Frankfort this week.

Gov. Matt Bevin announced Monday, the General Assembly will begin the special session on pensions beginning Friday, July 19.

Lawmakers will be considering Bevin’s pension bill to deal with quasi-governmental agencies and regional universities pension system. Pension contribution rates nearly doubled from 49 percent to more than 80 percent July 1, but many of these agencies have a 30-day grace period to make these payments.

The governor’s bill would freeze the contribution rates at 49 percent for a period of time; it would also allow employers to leave the pension without paying the full cost of what they owe among several other things, any of the changes to the pension system would not go into effect until after the 2020 General Assembly session. Some quasi-governmental agencies and regional universities threw their support behind the governor's proposal in May.

Opponents of the governor’s bill take issue with a provision that allows employers to require employees to leave the Kentucky Retirement System and move toward a 401(k) style plan, they say this breaks the inviolable contract.                        

 On Thursday, House Democrats announced their version of a pension bill (BR 11). Their plan among several things would freeze the contribution rate at 49 percent and shift excess payments from the retiree health insurance fund to the pension side for five years.

Advocacy group Kentucky Government Retirees came out in support of this proposal Monday.

"Unlike the governor's draft bill, BR 11 does not incentivize employers to leave the system and force dedicated public employees to lose guaranteed future pension benefits,” Kentucky Government Retirees President Jim Carroll said in a statement, “BR 11 also does not impose legislatively  mandated actuarial assumptions on the KRS Board of trustees, unlike another alternative plan recently proposed."

When lawmakers convene on Friday they will only be considering the governor’s bill. 

Bevin vetoed a bill passed by the General Assembly addressing the quasi-governmental agencies pension system in April, and since then had trouble garnering support for his pension bill. His team and the GOP say it will only take 51 votes to pass the measure, but Democrats contend it need 60 votes to pass. 

Lawmakers will gavel in at 8:00 am.