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Health & Fitness

Pension Dilemma

As the pizza man left my driveway the other night, it dawned on me that he looked a bit like Mike Madigan. “Couldn’t be”, I thought, “why would the speaker of the Illinois House be delivering pizzas?” Then I saw the headline that Governor Quinn suspended the paychecks of all of the legislators because they couldn’t come up with a plan to fix the state’s pension problem. Hmm, maybe that was him. Maybe the multi-million dollar law firm wasn’t enough for poor ol’ Mike.

 

This was a typical headline grabbing move from Illinois’ very own Cartoon-In-Chief. But think about it, should any politician be able to hold up the pay of any other politician because they can’t agree on something? Sounds pretty dangerous to me. After all, isn’t there that little thing about separation of powers? If a legislator needs discipline, that the voters’ job, not the governor’s.

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Yes, we all know that something needs to be done. The state’s unfunded pension liability is putting the state in financial peril. I think that I’m going to vote for Peter Francis Geraci to be our next Attorney General.      

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The problem is that for years, politicians made ridiculous promises to government employees. First, it was a good political move because it kept the unions in line behind them and second, it was a promise they really didn’t have to worry about keeping because they assumed they’d be long gone when the bill came due. Besides, as long as interest rates and inflation stayed high, the can could be kicked down the road long after any of them graced Springfield with their presence.         

 

Because of all of those promises, we find ourselves in a position where we owe past workers so much money that isn’t there, that we can’t afford our current workers. Look at the Chicago Public Schools; teachers who want to teach are being laid off to pay for teachers who are done teaching.  Eventually, we’ll have 45 kids in a classroom because all of the money is paying teachers who are at home.  Imagine when that happens to police and firemen.

 

I think that there are going to have to be some tough decisions made on this issue. Democrats are going to have to risk offending their union constituencies by requiring changes to new and existing pension plans. Start by putting all of them into Social Security from this point forward. This can be supplemented with a 401k type of plan which reduces the long term liability of the state. The retirement age has to go up as well. People are living longer and jobs, for the most part, are less physically demanding than they used to be, so there’s no reason to start pensioning people in their 40’s or 50’s. Yes, I know that it helps politically to let people retire early because it gives politicians the opportunity to hire someone new and have both people loyal to them. Concessions will still have to be made by current retirees too.  

 

Legislators on both sides need to take this seriously and do some heavy lifting on this. As a conservative it pains me to say that the only plan that makes any sense at all is Madigan’s plan. But let’s be honest, if he really wanted that plan, don’t you think he’d get his way on that? Doesn’t he always get his way?

 

Or we can continue to kick the can down the road. It looks like it’s headed to Detroit. In that case, I think I will vote for Peter Francis Geraci.

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