NEIUPI

Please find the message from John Miller, the UPI Legislative Chair, about pending legislative actions that may remove the 50% tuition waiver benefit for all university employees. It will affect all NEIU employees so it is important to share this with all members of our community. Here’s the message and requested actions to be taken:

Greetings everyone,
Today, we are asking you to:

1. Call your State Representative
2. “Like” the Save our Waivers Facebook page
3. Share this message with your colleagues at your home institution and across the state.

As you may be aware, HB 5531 is scheduled to be called in the House’s Executive Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 29. This bill “repeals provisions that permit the children of employees of a state university who have been employed by any one or by more than one state university for an aggregate period of at least seven years to receive a 50% tuition waiver. Effective immediately.” I cannot emphasize enough how important this benefit is to many of our members and colleagues across the state. Over the last several weeks, I have received many messages from university employees explaining how their children would not be able to attend a state university without the assistance of this benefit. Additionally, several faculty and staff indicated that they would consider employment at other universities outside of the state if this benefit is repealed. For the sake of our children, our colleagues,and for the quality of public higher education in the state of Illinois, we need to act, now.

The General Assembly is not is session on Monday. This is the perfect day to call your state representative at his or her home district office and ask them to contact the members on the House Executive Committee to vote NO on HB 5531. Our message is very simple:
1. Ask your state representative to please contact members of the House’s Executive Committee to vote NO on HB 5531.
2. Tuition waivers are an inexpensive yet important benefit for state university employees.
3. Tuition waivers help keep our kids in Illinois state universities instead of looking out of state where we can also get in-state tuition rates.
4. Tuition waivers help attract and retain quality faculty and staff at our state universities.
5. Ending the tuition waiver violates an agreement the state made with its employees. Many of us are counting on this benefit to send our own kids to an Illinois state university and will have no means of sending them to school if the state repeals this benefit.

Remember,when contacting your State Representative, please be polite and positive and use your personal phone or email. The person who is answering the phone is working for a living just like you and I. We need their support and a positive and pleasant manner goes a long way. After all, they will be receiving lots of phone calls on this issue today if we all take just a view minutes.

Not sure how to get in contact with your State Representative? It is easy. The Illinois State Board of Elections has a great resource to help you find both the phone number and email address. Remember, try to call your Representative in his or her home district office on Monday. After Monday, you should call his or her Springfield number.

Click Here to Find Your State Representative and Contact Information.

After you have finished calling your state representative, join our Facebook page. Let us know why the tuition waiver is important to you. Also, let us know how your State Representative responded to your message.

Click Here to Join our Save Our Waivers Facebook Page.

Finally,we cannot win this issue alone. We need as many people to call, email and to join our Facebook page. Besides forwarding this to your colleagues regardless of their position at the university, also “Share” our Facebook page. The more people who get involved, the stronger our voice will be.

Monday is only step one of our campaign. On Tuesday and Wednesday we will send a new email message to ask you to contact member of the House’s Executive Committee directly.

Thank you for your support and action.

Given all of the legislative activity stimulated by the financial status of our pension system, many NEIU employees were interested in what Lee Bridges, a SURS advisor, had to say during his presentation last Thursday. If you were not able to attend the SURS presentation, you will find copies of the handouts distributed by Lee Bridges attached to this email . Allen Shub, associate provost and contract administrator, sent the copies so that all bargaining unit members could review the handouts. Thanks, Allen.

Please share these with other NEIU employees…SURS applies to all state university employees. SURS (State University Retirement System)

Money Purchase Factor Change Fact Sheet

Retire: Who…Me?

The Presidents and Chancellors of the Illinois Public Universities have sent the attached letter to Governor Quinn. The letter addresses Senate Bill 512 on pension reform. Follow the link below:

Letter to Governor Quinn

If you have been concerned about the fate of our pensions, here’s the latest from the Springfield State Journal-Register…

Springfield’s lawmakers said Wednesday they do not think a bill revamping pensions for current state employees will be called for a vote during the remaining three days of the veto session.

Appearing before The State Journal-Register editorial board, Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, and Reps. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, and Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, also said they might consider a borrowing plan for the state if the money could be repaid in less than a year and Gov. Pat Quinn specifies exactly how the borrowed money will be spent.

The General Assembly is taking a week off before returning Tuesday for the final three days of the veto session.

Read more at the State Journal-Register…

Ed Hunt, our former NEIU chapter president, forwarded the following pension info to us:

This is from the SUAA fall board meeting a couple of weeks ago. Most people, including legislators, do not understand the flaws in the plan to push everyone into a 401(k). Illinois could end up in a worse situation with all retirees forced into Social Security and the state forced to make back payments into the system.

“Bill Mabe, Executive Director of the State University Retirement System (SURS) was the luncheon speaker. He addressed the current state of the pension system and noted that the system was funded for the current fiscal year. Payments of 81.7 million dollars were to be made to the System each month. However, the full payments were not being made but he has been told that they would catch up to the full payment amount owed to the system.

Among the problems faced by the System is simple demographics. The number of applicants (retirees) has doubled over the last 10 years, benefits have increased, but the number of active members (employees) has not increased and salaries have not increased enough to offset the number of those retiring.

Mr. Mabe discussed the four pension reform working groups which have been working over the summer and continue working to address the funding problem. He has been testifying at their sessions and believes that the members of the groups have come away from the meetings much more aware of the issues. He has pointed out that SB 512 does not save money in the long run and does not address the current unfunded liability. For example, he states that money required of the Defined Contribution plan (401 (k) type plan) costs significantly more to operate than the current system, would not allow the State to defer payments to the pension fund as it does now, and would take away money used to support the other pension plans. He also noted that he did not think the alternative plans would meet the Social Security standards for exemption from Social Security. Thus, Social Security officials would start demanding payroll taxes at some point. Those taxes would be due from the first day the covered plan took effect so there could be years of back payroll taxes due. He also noted that many part-time workers might receive small pensions but the pension would cause the offset and WEP provisions of Social Security to take effect, reducing the Social Security benefit awarded more than the pension was worth.”