TOPEKA ? The global financial crash over the past few weeks has put a big dent in the state pension fund and may require taxpayer help to fix, officials said Tuesday.

“At some point we have to re-evaluate our contribution rate,” Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said at a meeting of the House-Senate Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits.

Assets of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System have dropped 8.9 percent in the current fiscal year, which started July 1, and have decreased 14.6 percent for the calendar year.

That leaves assets at $11.8 billion in the pension fund that covers school employees, state workers and some other governmental employees.

In the current fiscal year, the state contributed approximately $330 million to KPERS; most of that is from tax support.

An increase in the rate of contribution would have to be approved by the Legislature and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Glenn Deck, executive director of KPERS, said the situation is being closely monitored. He said if the economic problems persist for three or four more months, then lawmakers may have to address the issue.

KPERS officials have been quick to note that retirement benefits are safe.

They conceded that the KPERS portfolio took a big hit in the recent downturn but noted that long-term KPERS investment assumptions remain at 8 percent growth.

Vince Smith, KPERS chief investment officer, said it is likely the United States will experience a recession, but that historically markets have a history of “snapping back sharply after finance events like we are experiencing today.”

Morris said he hoped so.

“We’ve had worse than a bad year,” he said.