FRANKFORT,Ky- After weeks of uncertainty it appears the Bevin Administration has the votes needed to pass his pension reform bill.

Gov. Matt Bevin’s deputy chief of staff, Bryan Sunderland, said Wednesday he believes they have the 51 votes needed in the House to pass Bevin’s pension bill to provide relief to 118 quasi-governmental agencies and regional universities.

Now—the question is when will lawmakers be called into that special session?

Louisville Republican Representative Jerry Miller says he thinks it will be one of three weeks; Next week, the week of July 8, or the week of August 12. Miller says children are back in school the week of August 12, so lawmakers should be back from summer vacations.

Pension contribution rates are set to nearly double come July 1, but lawmakers can make the bill retroactive.

“While the pain would be evident if we don’t pass a bill,” Miller said, “just having that bill in hand will further increase the urgency for our health departments, mental health agencies, rape crisis centers and regional universities.”

If the special session is pushed into July or August, it doesn’t necessarily mean agencies will have to make the increased contribution payment on July 1. Agencies are afforded a 30-day grace period on payments.

Miller doesn’t anticipate any surprises once the session is called. But if for some reason it fails to receive the needed votes, he says the real trouble will begin in January.

“If it goes past January it’s going to get very critical and we’re going to see layoffs, and we’re going to see service impaired. I don’t think anyone wants that even though our minority party in the House and the Senate are apparently not going to help us get this passed,” Miller said. “I have confidence we will get the bill passed that’s on the table it may not be until the second week of August, but we’ll get it passed.”

Democrats are not supportive of the bill, instead they support calling a special session to freeze the contribution rates until they can reach a different agreement during the 2020 session.

“We’re still waiting to see a final bill, and other than a briefing we received more than six weeks ago on the governor’s original proposal, our members have not been part of any discussions on the latest changes despite making repeated attempts to work in a bipartisan way,” House Democratic Floor Leader Rocky Adkins,D-Sandy Hook, said in a statement. “ Based on what we do know, we cannot support any plan that will unfairly cut retirement benefits for thousands of employees; saddle our public health departments, rape crisis centers, and regional universities with decades of debt; and cost the state and public retirement system hundreds of millions of dollars.  In addition, we believe this bill needs 60 votes in the House because of state constitutional requirements in odd-numbered years for appropriations.  There are better ways to tackle this issue, but those supporting this bill apparently don’t want to hear them.”