Archive for the ‘State Budget’ Category.
August 31, 2010, 6:31 am
We have negotiations today. Two negotiations “packages” are pending, compensation and evaluation. The first includes annual salary adjustments and workload. The second, evaluation, addresses retention, evaluation, termination and sanction.
The Chronicle reports that the state has nearly repaid the higher education bill for 2009-2010 and then speculates about the borrowing that may lie in our financial future.
Illinois’s Public Universities Won’t Have to Borrow — for Now
By Eric Kelderman
The State of Illinois has repaid nearly all of the $464-million it owed to its public universities from the 2009-10 fiscal year, which ended on June 30.
Read more at the Chronicle…
August 19, 2010, 11:44 am
Ed Geppert, President of the IFT, and Ken Swanson, President of IEA, have written a response to the Tribune and the Commercial Club of Chicago continuing onslaught on the Illinois pension system. The union leaders suggest that the Tribune has been used as a tool of terror. Please find below the commentary by Geppert and Swanson, response by Eden Martin (Commercial Club) and the Tribune.
Teachers: Don’t blame us for mess
By Ed Geppert and Ken Swanson
August 19, 2010
Dennis Byrne’s Aug. 10 column on Illinois’ financially imperiled pension system struck a nerve. The presidents of the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers have responded with an essay that says the Tribune is being used as a “tool of terror.” The IEA Web site says the Tribune is “waging a relentless war against public employees over state pensions” and claims the “real author” of Byrne’s column was Eden Martin, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
In the interest of debate, we present the essay from the IEA and IFT, and a response from Eden Martin.
How much longer will the Chicago Tribune allow itself to be used as a tool of terror by millionaire Eden Martin in his quest to deprive hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans of the reasonable retirement they, in large part, have paid for?
The Aug. 10 opinion piece, ostensibly written by public relations specialist Dennis Byrne, is a blatant attempt to frighten and intimidate innocent people who simply expect the State of Illinois to keep its promises.
Byrne/Martin’s claim that the state pension shortfall was caused by overly-generous pension benefits paid to state employees and teachers is provably false. And they know it.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune…
August 17, 2010, 2:58 pm
Here’s a response to the Tribune article of last week “pension check may not be in the mail.” This was posted by Center for Business and Public Policy at UIUC.
Why That Illinois Pension Check Will (Most Likely) Be in the Mail After All
Posted by Jeffrey Brown on Aug 16, 2010
As an economist, I often get annoyed when lawyers with no training in economics try to act as if they are experts in economic policy. As such, all the lawyers out there should be equally annoyed with this blog post, because I – an economist with no legal training – am about to make an observation about state constitutional law.
Read more at the Center for Business and Public Policy…
August 10, 2010, 4:42 pm
Pension check may not be in the mail
Dennis Byrne
August 10, 2010
Illinois public employees who think the state constitution guarantees that they’ll get all their pension benefits may have another think coming.
Politicians’ and public labor unions’ assurances aside, there’s another, not-well-publicized school of thought that says if the pension funds go bust, the state has no obligation to step in to pay the benefits. This runs contrary to the popular view that the Illinois Constitution, on its face, guarantees that all public employee pension benefits will be fully paid.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune…
May 7, 2010, 9:45 am
In case you missed it, the state senate passed a budget during a late night session. And it appears that there’s more quick actions planned for today….remember how quickly the legislators changed pension benefits for future employees.
Here’s an alert from the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), the state organization for the UPI.
This is an urgent Action Alert for all members of the Responsible Budget Coalition. (The IFT is a lead partner in the RBC coalition.)
The so-called “Emergency Budget Act” will be voted on TODAY in the Illinois General Assembly.
Please call your legislators NOW! Dial 800/719-3020 and follow the prompts to be connected to your legislator.
Tell them to VOTE NO on the Emergency Budget Act (House amendment 3 to Senate Bill 3660).
The Emergency Budget Act, if passed, would give Governor Pat Quinn broad powers to:
• skip paying the state’s required contribution to its pension funds; and
• place reserves on any state appropriation — in effect forcing cuts — including to the Common School Fund, funding for state universities and colleges, or any state agency, grantee or program.
Call 800/719-3020 now. It is urgent that legislators hear from us.
Tell them to VOTE NO on the Emergency Budget Act (House Amendment 3 to Senate Bill 3660).
Please share this RBC Action Alert right away with fellow union members, friends and families.
Thank you for your quick action on this important issue.
