Much-debated changes to the state’s pension system for public employees may have some effect on when those who work for Bowling Green and Warren County are choosing to retire – if only because the impact of those changes isn’t entirely understood.

H.B. Murphy is retiring Aug. 29 after five years as maintenance supervisor at the Warren County Justice Center. He’s not sure how the state retirement system changes will affect those already employed, and that uncertainty was another influence on his decision.

“Maybe in a way it was,” Murphy said. “The biggest factor was that I’m 63.”

He’d promised himself that he would retire at that age, despite how much he enjoys the job.

“I really love this building,” Murphy said. All the judges are fine people to work with, especially John Minton, chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, he said.

“He’s a real fine person,” Murphy said of Minton.

While several county employees are currently eligible to retire, Warren County Treasurer Jerry Pearson said he hasn’t heard that any others plan on it this year. The biggest impending change wouldn’t affect Murphy, or others, he said.

“There are some who’d been talking about it, thought they were going to lose if they did (keep working),” Pearson said. “But the way the General Assembly structured it, those on the system now are kind of grandfathered in.”

The bulk of changes will affect people hired after Sept. 1, he said. While current employees contribute 5 percent of the cost of their pensions, new hires will contribute that plus 1 percent more for their insurance, Pearson said. Spiraling health insurance costs are the biggest drag on the solvency of the state pension system.

Until now, most state employees could retire with full benefits after 27 years on the job. Now that will go up to 30 for most workers, Pearson said.

“They’re going to use what they call a ‘Rule of 87,’ ” he said. That means age and years of service will have to equal 87 for full benefits – such a retiree would need to be 57 years old and have worked 30 years, Pearson said.

In the future, employees will also have a harder time getting another public job once they’ve retired from one.

“If you retire, there cannot be any prearranged agreement of an employee coming back, where in the past they only had to be out for one calendar month, if they were coming back in a different position,” Pearson said.

After Sept. 1, workers will have to wait at least three months before seeking a second job in the state system, he said.

Several Bowling Green employees are also eligible to retire now, city Human Resources Director Michele Tolbert said, but she hasn’t heard whether any of those plan to depart before the new rules go into effect. Normally, she’d only get such notice a month or so in advance, but potential retirees have until the end of the year to act, Tolbert said.

Still, she’s heard some discussion that may relate to the retirement system changes among those with 27 years service in non-hazardous duty jobs, she said. Hazardous duty employees such as police and firefighters can still retire with 20 years service, Tolbert said.

“It’s not really changing for hazardous duty,” she said.

One thing potential retirees may need to consider is that currently their pension is calculated on an average of their highest three years’ pay, Tolbert said. That’s changing to a calculation based on a five-year average, she said.

For Murphy, however, none of that matters. He’s more concerned with staying physically fit in retirement. That’s always been of interest to him, and he plans to keep it up even after leaving a labor-intensive job.

“I’m going to go to the gym and hang out,” Murphy said.