Letter to the State Journal-Register

Recently, the Illinois Policy Institute, a “think tank” that doesn’t disclose its funding, issued a report claiming that in 48 percent of school districts across the state, teachers pay nothing toward their pensions.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Teachers pay their full 9.4 percent of every paycheck. They always have. Loyally. Without fail.
The fact is, over the years when negotiating contracts, teachers have given up pay increases and other benefits in lieu of the pension contribution.

For instance, instead of increasing salaries by 2 percent, a locally elected school board and district teachers may agree that the district will pay a comparable portion of the teachers’ contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement System.

This practice has saved school districts money over the years because picking up retirement costs is often cheaper than providing other benefits.  For less money, districts can offer a benefit that helps them attract and retain quality teachers — a bonus for students and the community.
Everyday, Illinois teachers help students understand complex issues. It appears the policy institute could use a lesson.

Here it is: What the institute is claiming is akin to saying that those who participate in Social Security haven’t paid their share of federal Social Security taxes because their employers are covering it for them.

A decent salary and good benefits are how employers everywhere attract good employees. Do we want less from our schools? There are few places where having the best and brightest matters more than in our schools.

— Robin Twidwell, president, Danville Education Association/IEA
— Suzanne Kreps, president, Decatur Education Association/IEA
— Vickie Mahrt, president, Unit Five Education Association/IEA (Normal
— Dan Ford, president, Springfield Education Association/IEA
— Beth Hand, president, Urbana Education Association/IEA 2110

Don’t break a legal contract
With lawmakers gathering in Springfield this week, it’s time to revisit an Aug. 24 column in The State Journal-Register by Dick Ingram, executive director of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois.

Ingram’s column regarding public pension systems informed the readers that:

1. Illinois pension systems are not bankrupt; they have unfunded liabilities, but that debt never has to be paid off at one point in time.

2. Because public employees cannot collect until they retire, the only amount that the pension systems must pay each year is the amount owed to retirees then.

3. Illinois pension systems will not run out of money or default in 10 or 15 years.

4. Pension benefits locked in place by the Illinois Constitution are not the main reason the system carries unfunded liabilities. State government has failed to contribute more than two-thirds of the money budgeted for pensions.

5. The annual cost of pensions is not bankrupting state government, but helping the Illinois economy. Pension benefits paid to retired public employees are a return on an investment.  Each dollar is recycled through the economy as retirees spend money exactly as they did when they were receiving salaries.

6. Combined, state government salaries and state-administered pensions during 2010 translated into a $24.5 billion economic stimulus for the state of Illinois.

State employees’ pensions are often the only retirement income for workers who have spent their entire careers in service to the state and its citizens. Those who try to alter pension benefits for current and/or future state employees, using misinformation to advance their agendas, seek to break a legal contract between the state and its workers.

A better use of their time and energy would be in rooting out ongoing financial mismanagement in the state. Those in past and current management positions in state government, whether elected or appointed, are culpable for the financial mess that state finds itself and should be dealt with accordingly.

— Jeff Donohue, Chatham

Pension Watch

From IRTA (Illinois Retired Teachers Association)


House Minority Leader Cross announced on Wednesday that he will call SB512 for a vote when the General Assembly returns on November 8th. Cross stated that he has 30 Republican votes for the measure. Cross is depending on Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats to supply the additional 30 votes for passage. It is uncertain if the House Democrats will provide the additional votes. As a reminder SB512 provides a three-tiered pension system for active teachers. This legislation does not impact your pension directly. It will affect the funding of TRS and put more of the burden on the State to provide additional funds to comply with the pension funding law. 

In the Clear for Now

The Illinois General Assembly has adjourned until Nov. 8 without voting on the pension-cutting bill SB 512, the same bill that IEA members and staff stopped during the spring legislative session.

 

Thursday, the final day of the first half of the fall session, began in a confusing manner. A newspaper story stated that House Republican Leader Tom Cross had claimed to have the GOP votes needed to pass SB 512. This report conflicted with everything we had heard from the Statehouse for the last few weeks. Later in the day, we received word that the report was being denied, and that, just as had been the case in the spring, there are currently not enough votes to pass the pension-cutting bill.

 

While it is still believed that the bill won't see action until after the Illinois Primary, IEA cannot be lulled into a false sense of security.

 

A "Call to Action" has been issued for IEA members.  

We Are One - Action Steps

This is a critical moment in the fight to protect public employee pensions.

State legislators will be back in Springfield tomorrow for Veto Session, and once again retirement security for teachers, police, caregivers and other public servants is at risk.

With so much on the line, the time to act is now! Here’s what you can do:

1) Email your legislators
Use this easy tool to be connected directly to your lawmakers in Springfield. Tell them to OPPOSE any bill that threatens retirement security. Remind them that public employees have earned their pension, contributing to it from each and every paycheck, and most don't get Social Security.

2) Call your legislators
Click here or dial 888-412-6570 and follow the prompts. You will be connected with your state legislators. Tell them to do the right thing: protect the modest pensions that Illinois public employees rely on.

3) Join us in Springfield
Stand with We Are One Illinois and working men and women from across the state at the Capitol in Springfield this Wednesday, October 26 at noon. We’ll be rallying in the rotunda to tell lawmakers that it’s wrong to punish our teachers, fire fighters, police officers and all other public employees for the mistakes of politicians, who’ve shortchanged our pensions year after year.

On behalf of the more than 1 million working men and women of the We Are One Illinois Coalition, thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
The We Are One Illinois Coalition

IEA urges lawmakers to evaluate pension bills before voting on them

Please take a look at the video posted at:

http://www.ieanea.org/banner/iea-urges-lawmakers-to-evaluate-pension-bills-before-voting-on-them/


Video summary:

An analysis of Senate Bill 512, the pension bill developed last spring by the Chicago-based Civic Committee, shows it would have cost taxpayers an additional $34 billion dollars for state pensions. IEA lobbyist Will Lovett explains what the analysts found and why the legislature should reject any attempts to ram through pension reform bills, especially those supported by the Civic Committee and the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

Sun-Times Letter to the Editor

Teachers are not the enemy
For years now, a small but very wealthy group, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, has been railing against public pensions. Last spring, they tried to pass a plan that would cut the pension benefits for teachers, firefighters and other public employees on the promise the plan would save taxpayer dollars.

However, the math of the Civic Committee’s plan is flawed and the committee knows it. SB512 would have cost taxpayers more than $34 billion in additional money over the next 15 years. And, it would have killed the state’s pension systems, leaving hundreds of thousands of teachers and retired teachers in a lurch.

Teachers don’t earn Social Security. For most, their pension is their life savings. And, they’ve paid for it — 9.4 percent of every one of their paychecks has gone toward their retirement plan, a plan they believe is guaranteed by the state’s constitution.

As much as the Civic Committee, a group of Chicago area millionaires, wants to blame the problems the pension systems are facing on public employees, the committee is wrong. No, it wasn’t the employees who siphoned money from the pension system.

It was lawmakers.

In its zeal to end the pension system, has the Civic Committee thought about the future? If the pension system is killed off, what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of teachers who do now or will rely on it for retirement income? They have no Social Security to fall back on.

Then what?

They act as if public employees are the enemy of this state. We are not. We are representatives of the majority of working people in Illinois. We are the middle class.

We are in every community working diligently to improve our schools and to help our students.

We care about the future of our students and their families and taking away our earned retirement security sets a wrong example. We should all be working to build up the economic status of families, not tear it down.

We are not the enemy. We are Illinois.
Cinda Klickna, president, Illinois Education Association

IEA Response to the Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune today is reporting that two non-teacher Illinois Federation of Teachers staff members qualified for TRS pensions by taking advantage of a law that allowed union staff to receive a TRS pension for their years of union service (based on their union salaries) if the union pays the employee and employer contributions for those years and if the individuals taught for at least one day. Both IFT staff members spent the required day in a classroom, however it's not known whether both will actually receive TRS pensions as the required contribution runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Regardless, this is being pointed to as an example of "abuse" in the pension systems. A few points: This involves just two individuals from one union (no IEA staff took advantage of this opportunity which, at the time, was indisputably legal). According to information from IFT, the pensions, if they are collected, will be fully paid for by the individuals and will not negatively impact TRS. IEA and IFT agree that this sort of opportunity should never be available again and we would oppose any attempt to reopen this now-closed door. IEA and IFT believe that one day in the classroom is inadequate for anyone to be considered a teacher. An individual should demonstrate a commitment to the profession to be considered a teacher and, therefore, qualified for a TRS pension. 2. The Tribune is reporting that the pension for former IEA and NEA President Reg Weaver was calculated based on the salary he drew as NEA president, making him the second-largest TRS pension recipient. Key points: Under current law, it is completely legal to have the TRS pensions for elected, full time union leaders to be calculated based on their union employment, whether it is serving as an IEA officer or as an officer of NEA, as former President Weaver's is. While the elected officers are working full time for the union, the union (IEA or NEA) makes all the required employer contributions to TRS on behalf of the officers. The district and state contribute nothing toward TRS during this period. The elected officers come into their union positions directly from the classroom and remain employees (on leave) of their school districts throughout their union service. IEA bylaws require offices be held by "active" members. Officers have, in some cases, opted to return to the classroom after they leave IEA employment. Obviously, the impact in dollars of the items listed above is infinitesimal when considered in the context of TRS, a multi billion dollar institution with more than 360,000 participants. Nevertheless, some of our opponents will point to these stories as proof that "something needs to be done" about pensions.