Illinois officials: Pension change could be 'devastating'

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

The key sentence in the article above:

Illinois' pension problems go back decades, however, due largely to state lawmakers voting for years to skip or short the annual payment.

Bears repeating, Illinois pension problems were created by the General Assembly, not the teachers. Teachers and/or school districts paid the required amount into the Teachers' Retirement System every year, whether it caused them financial hardship or not. Members of the General Assembly, despite annual complaints and warnings from the Illinois Education Association, failed to do their job, voting to funnel state revenues into other projects rather than to do the unpopular, namely, raise taxes...or cut funding to their own pet projects.

Teachers are not at fault for the pension mess. Teachers should not be blamed for the pension mess. Teachers should not feel guilty for the pension mess.

Teachers were promised a pension. The Illinois Constitution guarantees that pension promise. So, don't even think about reneging on that pension promise by amending the Illinois Constitution, an act that would be morally reprehensible.

The General Assembly keeps looking for a quick fix to the "pension problem", a problem that was decades in the making. That is not reasonable.

The General Assembly needs to focus on insuring that current pension obligations (both to the system and to individual retirees) are met while finding a long-term fix that will insure the solvency of the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System...

...a fix that will surely take years, if not decades.

From KFVS TV Channel 12