Illinois state representatives and senators have been furiously sending letters home to their constituents justifying their #pension theft.
I’ll be posting all or parts of them.
This from Park Ridge Senator Dan Kotowski:
My job as a public servant is to do what is right and necessary, but not necessarily what is popular. I know that you are frustrated and upset and you have every right to be. As a representative of all the people in our district, it is my responsibility, however, to balance your interests with the challenges of everyone else.
The fact is that we are all in this together. That is why I personally led the effort to cut lawmakers’ pay by $3,100 each year for the past five years and eliminate the free healthcare for life benefit for elected officials. I also pushed for benefit cuts for legislators in the recently passed pension legislation.
We have a moral obligation to look out for everyone, especially those who are least able to take care of themselves. While not perfect, the bill I voted for protected your retirement and guaranteed you a modest cost of living adjustment while keeping a covenant with everyone else that so desperately needs legal, social and economic justice in our state.
Current retirees will lose 25-30% of our pension payout over the next 20 years.
Kotowski’s $3100 cut in legislators pay amounts to $60 a week. That’s not even Mike Madigan’s cigar money.
We’re all in this together?
Fred Klonsky 
Let’s not forget that Kotowski’s starting salary [plus $111 daily allowance for food/fuel, etc. while in session] for his part-time legislative job is considerably more than what the average state retiree will get in retirement. The average teacher’s retirement pension is about $45,000 whereas a legislator starts at $67,836. It’s so comforting to know when an entire class of retirees over time become indigent and “unable to take care of themselves” financially that Kotowski feels a “moral obligation” look out for us at a time when we’ll “so desperately need legal, social and economic justice in our state.” I’m sure both my creditors and I can breath a sigh of relief and sleep soundly over those words. I feel better knowing that contrary to popular belief the state didn’t stab retirees in the back, they’ve got our back!
Yes, he’s a real sacrificial lamb voting for modest cuts in legislator’s pay and benefits, safe proposals that never stood a chance of enactment. But he tries, and that’s what counts. Right? As a statesman, he views his job as balancing the interests of one group against the challenges of all others. On this point he is honest. He has balanced the interests of one group (the major bank bondholders) against the thousands of retiree’s pensions, finding the bondholder’s interests far more important. If we’re all in this together, why are so many of us left out?
No talk of tax restructure from any of these clowns. They got away with pension theft for years and voted in legislation which will rob the same group again! And I am sure that this is not the last of the pigs feeding off our pensions.
It is a positive sign that all these pension thieves are sending out explanations to their constituents because it says they are hearing us loud and clear, All the rationalizations do not respond to the fact that they dropped the pension ball for 20+ years and are trying to solve this by stealing even more pension money.
Susan you are right that this will not stop the bleeding of our pensions. The legislation is written so they can continue the same course of action of pension holidays whenever they need to.
I give Kotowski credit for voting for the temporary income tax hike in 2011. He could have taken a pass on a controversial bill, but he did the right thing. I don’t like his vote because it will deprive me of 20% of my pension if the bill is upheld. I’m just saying that he is more responsible than many of his suburban colleagues who never vote for higher revenues as a way to pay our bills.
I think he has it wrong. What he did was “popular” not “right”. He seems limited and somewhat scared.
Do they still get free health care for life?