Posted on 12/19/2012 6:51:57 PM PST by Libloather
Unions blast state on plans for underfunded pensions
By Rick Pearson
Tribune reporter
1:26 p.m. CST, December 19, 2012
A coalition of public employee unions issued a report today blasting state legislation to address their vastly underfunded pension systems and offering instead to make increased worker contributions if lawmakers raised $2 billion by ending tax benefits to corporations and imposing new taxes.
Appearing at the James R. Thompson Center, members of the We Are One coalition said plans backed by Gov. Pat Quinn and another proposal supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers would violate the state constitution by reducing pension benefits already guaranteed to workers. They predicted such a change would be overturned by the courts.
**SNIP**
To help fund those obligations, the unions proposed eliminating several corporate tax benefits as well as imposing new taxes on auto trade-ins, satellite TV service and downloaded digital entertainment. The new funds also could be used to help offset cuts in other public social services, the group said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
reddnekk sez that’s gonna drive the businesses out of ill noise.
“American” commies really suck. REAL commies don’t care about money. REAL commies care only about their cause, communism. The fraudulent commie wannabes in this country are greedy as hell and care only about how much money they can steal from other people.
Communist Union Think.
There’s only one way out from under the big union thumb.
Reaching up out of the swirling toilet bowl to pull that flush lever one more time.
ILLINOIS!!!
I guessed it and was right. Greedy POS public sector leeches.
What part of “Corporations do not pay taxes” do these Union people not understand?
Running out of other peoples money?
These people worked expecting a certain pension. Sorry to disappoint them. Unfortunately, everyone has to make compromises in these economic times. The gravy train has to be modified. At least these govt workers have a job and a pension. That is not true for much of America. Suck it up, union thugs.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Illinois pensions: a dangerous game of guesswork
By Jonathan Ingram -
In the mid-1990s, Illinois lawmakers were facing a serious problem: the unfunded liability of the state’s five public pension systems. By 1996, the state’s unfunded pension liability stood at $20 billion. As a way to combat this growing problem, the state created a repayment schedule, often called the “pension ramp.” The pension ramp promised to get the systems 90 percent funded by 2045.
According to the repayment schedule, by now the five systems should be nearly 57-percent funded. Instead, the systems are just 39-percent funded and the state’s pension debt has grown to $95 billion. So what happened?
If you spend any time in Springfield, you’ll often hear that the pension debt was caused by the state “skipping pension payments.” But this is what you probably won’t hear: taxpayers have actually paid more than the pension ramp projected.
Under the original repayment schedule, the state was to pay $32.1 billion between fiscal years 1996 and 2012. So what really happened? Taxpayers pumped $40.1 billion into the pension systems, or $8 billion more than the original ramp called for....
When this State finally crashes and all those EBT cards stop working I’m going to sit in my backyard, pour three fingers of Bourbon,light a cigar, watch the rosy glow in the sky as the south and west sides of Chicago go up in flames, and I’m going to laugh and laugh and laugh....
Why do government employees use those pensions? I think that they should use Social Security, like the rest of us. I was in the navy for 21 years (11 on active duty and 10 in the reserves). I was near Baghdad, in the Triangle of Death, for six months. I have to wait until I’m 60, to get my navy pension, so I have to wait for about 14 years and three months more.
In Illinois teachers do not pay into SS by my understanding,
I already knew that Illinois teachers don’t pay into Social Security. Why don’t they pay into Social Security? Do you think that they should pay into it, instead of paying into the government pension?
At this time what I think does not matter.
Politicians have squandered money meant for pensions for teachers.
Since Illinois can not print money there are only 3 options.
Raise taxes to fund pension funds, change contract with unions or declare bankruptcy.
The first two options are not viable.
The first because because they are democrat pols, even if they were able to get money from citizens they would use for something else.
Pleas note in late eighties early nineties courts ordered Illinois to fund the pensions, as we can see that worked out well/s
The second option is the unions, these are teacher unions, they are living 100 yrs in past..
The third option will have the rest of USA paying the pensions for Illinois, and the US is either broke or close.
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