By Tom Latek, includes “Leaders of Kentucky’s public universities say they are grateful for the funding increase proposed by Gov. Andy Beshear in his budget, but say increasing pension costs are their biggest financial hurdle. …” (Note: “soaring pension costs” highlights issues between cash-based and accrual-based accounting. For troubled pension plans, cash requirements may be “soaring” today, but because of a failure to fund accrual costs yesterday.)