Get Educated on the Pension “Reform” Issue (NEW LINK ADDED)

Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.  Ill. Const. Article XIII, Sec. 5.

If you think that changes to pensions are something to worry about in other states and not Illinois, you are dead wrong.  There has been a whole lot of propoganda put out by big business (Civic Federation, Commercial Club, etc.) that is false and misleading and is pushing politicians to pass laws that strip away pensions of government employees.

Rose Costin (MDD) indicates that there is a shell bill pending currently in the General Assembly that would affect the pensions of Cook County Employees.  That bill, HB521 deserves a close eye and make sure you let your state rep or senator know how you feel about them tinkering with our pensions.

Sister Rose also directs us to three links that are described below which educate you on the fine points of the pension issue if you need some schooling.

The first link is to an article published in Illinois Issues, a publication of the University of Illinois, by Dana Huepel.

The second is an link to an article written by the President of Northern Illinois University, explaining some of the pending legislation.

And the final piece link is to an explanation of the clause from the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition against pensions being “diminished or impaired,” from the Center for Business and Public Policy.

And now we have a new link that was sent to us from Senator Cullerton’s Chief Legal Counsel, Eric Madair.

The local hopes these resources will be of help to the membership.