Will Governor Quinn be able to get a pension deal in August?
H/T Roger Sanders.
Capitol Fax reported that Governor Quinn still has dreams of getting the General Assembly back in session before the November election.
The members of the General Assembly may have other ideas.
But in Springfield two things can always be counted on. Either nothing happens. Or it happens before you can do anything about it.
Illinois teachers who were hired after January 1st of 2011 will know that their pension was screwed by the Illinois General Assembly in 12 hours. With no advance warning. It’s a bitter lesson.
Quinn wants to force a Hobson’s Choice on retired teachers. Health care or a cost of living adjustment.
Speaker Madigan wants a pension cost shift from the state to local districts and municipalities.
GOP House Leader Cross doesn’t have his caucus’ support for the cost shift.
This all makes a legislative deal difficult.
However, teachers need to be contacting their legislators and telling them that we oppose:
- Any deal that includes a TRIP – COLA choice.
- Any deal that includes a pension cost shift.
- Any deal that is not constitutional, that does not bring financial stability to TRS or fails the fairness test to the 360,000 members of TRS.
That Gov. Quinn – what a swell guy. He wants grandma to choose between having to sell her house or getting her blood pressure medicine. He wants grandpa to choose between hiring someone to fix his roof or having that dark mole on his forehead looked at by a dermatologist. He wants your elderly neighbor to choose between getting her car repaired or keeping her annual doctor’s appointment.
He doesn’t want Illinois to choose between raising taxes on millionaires or eliminating corporate tax giveaways.
No, Gov. Quinn is such a courageous politician that he’d rather make seniors who dedicated decades of their life in the service of Illinois’ children choose.