Budget negotiators have finally killed off the money-losing KAPT program. The moribund program has long been propped up by the dubious backing of the state's unclaimed property fund.
That is no longer the case.
While the program has technically been re-opened to new accounts starting in July, budget language requires premiums to be "actuarially sound." This is the crux of the issue: premiums were initially so low that the program kept going into the tank. Actuarial losses wind up being paid for with taxpayer money. That is what the Senate majority objected to. Requiring adequate premiums to keep the program from being a chronic money-loser removes all incentive to sign up for KAPT in the future.
R.I.P. KAPT.
The $13.7 million Jonathan Miller took from taxpayers in December of 2004 has also been returned to the general fund.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when Miller figures out that he really got hosed.
