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| Pension reform rhetoric will fill the air around the Statehouse in coming days. Whether that means a solution will be found remains questionable. |
We
have been told so many times that the pension problem threatens to take down
all of state government because the shortfall has grown way too big. We fixed
too many financial problems in the past by underfunding the pension expenses!
PERSONALLY,
I THINK many legislators have grown immune to the harsh talk. They think, just
like they do on many other issues, that the world can operate at their own
snail’s pace. The fact that the General Assembly cut back the number of days it will convene before the transition shows it would prefer to do as little as it has to.
So
I won’t be surprised if it turns out that nothing is accomplished on this
particular issue prior to Jan. 9 – even though Gov. Pat Quinn has made it clear
he wants this issue to be THE priority for the final few days of the old
Legislature; which begin a week from Wednesday in the Illinois Senate.
A
large part of the problem lies with the pension program that covers the
retirement benefits of school teachers who worked for districts in suburban and
rural Illinois areas.
Because
a logical part of any solution probably is that the school districts should be
providing for the pensions offered to the teachers who worked there – instead of
having the state do it.
OF
COURSE, THAT does not really fix the problem. It just shifts it off onto
someone else!
And
the school district officials across Illinois have made it clear they hate the
idea. They are convinced (rightfully so, probably) that their own tax levies
would have to be increased significantly for them to be able to have enough
money to cover those expenses.
The
Teachers Retirement System program estimates that taxpayers would have to come
up with about $800 million more per year if such a shift were suddenly imposed.
That
means property tax increases in the mid-2010s for many homeowners who think
they’re already being overtaxed. It also means increased outrage from the
public, which is the last thing many of our legislators want to incur.
SOME
PEOPLE THINK that this can be imposed gradually – over a period of years. Which
would create the illusion that property taxes are not increasing so quickly.
Even
though the end result would be that $800 million hike by the time it’s all
over.
I
honestly think this is the factor that will keep legislators from doing
anything. It won’t be “courage” to prevent a tax increase on their part. It
will be “fear” of infuriating the constituents!
This
is one of those instances where sitting back and doing nothing has the
potential to cause problems. But political inertia is, all too often, what the
Illinois General Assembly is all about.
OF
COURSE, I also get amused whenever I hear the state legislators from Chicago
proper complain about the REAL problem. That being that the Chicago Teachers
Union came up with a separate system for funding pensions for retirees of the Chicago
Public Schools.
Local
property owners already cover those expenses as Chicago residents. But since
they’re also Illinois residents, they also get hit with a tax levy that asks
them to cover the suburban/rural teacher retirees as well.
Everybody
wants to see themselves as a victim, and everybody else as the bully in this
case. Although I’m sure if city teacher retirees were to get “their way” and
the state had to cover city retirees too, we’d have all those rural residents
claiming this as another example of Chicago “bullying” the rest of Illinois.
Confusing?
Of course it is! I’m sure the legislators preparing for a return next week to
the Statehouse are equally confounded – and unlikely to reach agreement on a
solution to the overarching problem.
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