The Illinois Education Association issued another of it’s press releases today concerning the state’s pension debate.
Written by IEA Communication Director Charlie McBarron, the IEA tries to explain why there has been no progress over the summer.
Pension legislation stalled because of union opposition and because Democrats and Republicans disagree on whether local districts should pay the state’s share of pension costs.
McBarron repeats what I have read elsewhere – that Speaker Madigan may try and move their solution of a cost shift and a COLA-Health Care choice after January 1st using only Democratic Party votes.
McBarron then presents the IEA proposal.
There are other options. The legislative leaders, Republicans and Democrats, could actually engage with the Illinois labor coalition (IEA, IFT, AFSCME, SEIU, AFL-CIO). Starting with the framework the unions have proposed, all could work toward a fair and constitutional solution to the problem.
It’s the one thing they haven’t tried.
When you meet with your state legislators between now and election day, you might want to mention that. More information on what the unions have offered is here.
I do not support this approach.
The most immediate problem with it is that it is not backed up by any serious attempt to mobilize state pension members.
And secondly, it continues the IEA strategy of offering to have members pay more.
The Illinois political leadership will never be satisfied with this. They will forever come back to us and ask us to pay even more. Or cut benefits more.
To propose this buys into the proposition that the problem is a benefit problem. It is not. It is a revenue problem.
Glen Brown provides ways to address the revenue problem, which the state’s public employee unions should adopt and promote.
We cannot forget that Illinois legislators have diverted nearly $15 billion from the Teachers’ Retirement System and more than $30 billion intended for the five pension systems over the past decades. General Assemblies have created the pension systems’ unfunded liabilities and, as a result, the State of Illinois has a serious REVENUE PROBLEM that must be resolved.
Read Glen Brown’s proposals here.
Let the IEA leadership know that we can never accept a solution that asks those who have paid and kept their promise to pay again.
Fred Klonsky 
It’s a pretty rough go, when your own party shows over and over that it
doesn’t give one shit about you. I’m non-violent, but I really get pissed off
about this. The other unions in this mess have much larger balls than we
teachers, but we could surely serve as water bearers in the fray if it comes
to that Sounds like revolution, I know, but maybe….
I totally agree with Mike above. The arrogance of Mike Madigan is appalling. The ignorance of Pat Quinn continues to amaze me. Tom Cross and Christine Radagno are equally hateful but at least it is exp[ected from the repugs. It is time to stand up to these folks as a block, together with all the other unions and pension funds. And it is not time to offer a framework. These legislators need to guarantee a revenue stream and not cut benefits. Period.
I am a part of the CTPF, a pension fund that has provided a stable and secure pension for its members for over 116 years. That was before the state legislators decided to listen to the moans of CPS and allow them to stop payments to the fund in 1995. Since then, CPS has been spending like a drunken sailor and are now in a position where they will fail to meet their pension obligations next year when payments are to resume. This was done on purpose.
And now rahm is after our actual pension money. First, he will try to gain control of the pension by replacing elected directors with appointed directors (the majority appointed by the mayor). He is getting help from Tom Cross on this one. Next, eliminate the COLA for the next, aahhem, 10 years (never to be seen again by any pensioner). Next, “borrow” the pension money for the city and the schools. After that, eliminate whatever support for health insurance is still in place. Finally, declare bankruptcy and close down the pension.
In other words, whatever happens to the state pensioners will happen to us – and more. It is time to fight. Fight the out-of-state reformers, the billionaires, the big businesses like the CME, Motorola, and Sears and their huge tax breaks, and the Democratic Party who has decided to ignore the ones that got them to the dance in the first place. Perhaps we need a labor party to run against all of these clowns. Because someone needs to stand up for those of us who worked, earned our pensions and our benefits, and are not going to be silenced easily. Let Madigan laugh now. But there will be consequences sooner or later for those like him.
Pissed off doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel lately.