Democrat and Senate President John Cullerton. His plan is unfair.
Senate Democratic President John Cullerton is still pushing hard on his plan to transfer the state’s pension obligations to local school districts.
The IEA leadership must strongly oppose this proposal, as it lacks fairness.
A fair solution to the pension issue is an IEA principal.
The good news is that Cullerton has broadened the movement for a fair solution. School districts around the state, many who are already on the financial watch list, are opposed to the plan to shift the obligation.
Had we been taking buses down to Springfield we could have filled one with local school board presidents.
The bad news is that this will have a devastating result on local school communities.
Pension activist, retired teacher and blogger Glen Brown:
Let’s imagine that we haven’t paid some of our bills for a very long time, perhaps our mortgage or rent, some of our taxes and insurance policies, credit card and utility bills. To “reform” this irresponsible and purposeful inaction, why not do what the State of Illinois has done to us and ask our banks, our county collector, and the various companies to whom we are indebted to contribute some of their money to help us pay down what we owe them? That’s right! It’s quite simple; besides it’s all about a “shared sacrifice,” isn’t it? We could write our own piece of legislation too and proclaim that the banks and businesses cap the earnings of their employees and shift the burden of our debts to their CEOs to save money. We’ll call our proposal “Shift Our Bills to Zero” or SOB 2 0.
The Chicago News Cooperative reports that Michael Madigan, who is a backer of the Civic Committee’s SB512, may be moving in the direction of the Cullerton plan.
The new plan–which gained ground after House Speaker Mike Madigan mentioned it last month during a speech at Elmhurst Colllege–would force school districts and the state’s public universities to pay for part of the costs of their retiring teachers going forward. Previously discussion about the state’s pension troubles had focused primarily on the prospect of reducing benefits for future retirees.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, who has been floating the idea with newspaper editorial boards, said the plan would allow individual school districts and state colleges to make choices about how to address the pension problem. Some districts and universities would absorb the cost. Others might be forced to take a tougher stance with teacher unions during contract talks and negotiate pensions as part of overall salaries and benefits, Cullerton said.
Fred Klonsky 