Beware, friends, of the frights that lay ahead: it’s once again time to enter the Haunted House of Pension Horrors. In our annual tradition, we will take you through the spooky and blood-chilling attacks on the retirement security of working families. Just like Freddy and Jason, anti-pension ideologues want to slash pension benefits for teachers, firefighters, librarians, and other public employees.

Enter below, if you dare.

The Mastermind: John Arnold – every good scary story needs a mysterious danger lurking in the shadows. When it comes to public pensions, the mastermind behind these attacks is none other than the billionaire John Arnold. Like a spider ensnaring its prey in its web, Arnold funds a growing web of anti-pension organizations that spread out and pounce on public pensions. You can view John Arnold’s anti-pension funding web right here.

The Sorcerer: Matt Bevin – like a sorcerer casting a spell to confuse his victims, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is busily promoting falsehoods about public pensions to obscure the true effects of his anti-pension proposal. Just this week the governor’s office ludicrously claimed that a teacher could not only save as much for retirement through a 401(k)-style plan as through a pension, but also mysteriously claimed that this same teacher would have over $800,000 to leave to their family. If you don’t understand how this could work, perhaps you’re just not sophisticated enough, according to Bevin himself. Only someone practiced in the dark arts could possibly conjure up such fantastical savings through the meager and ungenerous plan the governor is proposing.

The minions: Pew, RSI, and Reason – every mysterious mastermind needs minions to carry out his dastardly deeds. John Arnold generously funds Pew’s Public Sector Retirement Systems project, the Retirement Security Initiative, and the Reason Foundation to do his dirty work attacking public pensions. These menacing minions scurry across the country searching for public pension plans susceptible to their attacks.

Threats to public pensions are always lurking in the shadows. Here at NPPC we try to shine a light on the shadows to expose these anti-pension actors for who they really are. John Arnold and his minions may seem like a true menace, but working people standing together are stronger than Arnold’s money. We need you to join us in fighting back to prevent these pension horrors. Will you?