Gov. Pat Quinn made waves this morning by announcing the suspension of state legislators’ pay until the General Assembly passes comprehensive pension reform. Quinn is also withholding his own pay. This move comes a day after lawmakers serving on a special pension conference committee failed to meet the governor’s July 9 deadline to resolve the differences between the various pension reform proposals on the table.
This isn’t likely to go over well with lawmakers, whose salaries are the fifth-highest in the country among state legislators.
On one hand, Quinn’s announcement is a media-friendly gimmick to position himself favorably in the ongoing pension debate. On the other hand, it seems reasonable to expect legislators to actually to do the job they were elected and are paid to do. According to data from the state comptroller’s state employee salary database, the average salary of a state representative in 2012, including additional leadership pay, was $72,591. The average salary of a state senator in 2012, including additional leadership pay, was $77,545.
The real question is whether the governor’s pronouncement will just create more ill will among lawmakers or if it will move officials closer to approving real reforms that would actually solve the crisis, rather than papering over the problem.
Legislators’ pensions crystallize the crisis
The General Assembly’s own pension plan is a case study of why sweeping reform is necessary. Taxpayer contributions to the General Assembly Retirement System, or GARS, have gone up by 237% since 1998. Illinois taxpayers contributed nearly $9 million more to GARS than legislators did in 2009 alone. And this gap is projected to widen further — between 2013 and 2045, taxpayers’ annual contributions to GARS are projected to increase by 226%, to $46.3 million.
These ballooning pension costs are exactly what the pension conference committee was charged with resolving.
A real pension reform solution
The Illinois Policy Institute has outlined a comprehensive pension reform plan that is constitutional, would immediately cut Illinois’ $100 billion unfunded pension liability by nearly half, and would protect the benefits earned to date by current government workers.
Going forward, government workers would control their retirement funds in a self-managed plan. They would be able to grow a solid retirement nest egg, and taxpayers would face no unfunded liability.
The Illinois Policy Institute’s plan, proposed as House Bill 3303 and Senate Bill 2026, solves the pension crisis. It paves the way for Illinois’ economy to flourish once again and provides the jobs that Illinoisans are eager to fill. It’s our best hope for turning this state around.
Kristina Rasmussen
Executive Vice President
The Illinois Policy Institute
Click Here To Submit A News Tip Or Story
1 Comment
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
These easy fixes for the pension problems really get to me. The business roundtable of execs offer their solutions to fix the problem. That being to screw the State workers like they have done to the private sector ones. When United Airlines was allowed to steal the pensions of their pilots, I knew something was wrong. It all started with Ronald Reagan. The venture capitalism and corporate raiding have done nothing for our country but damage our middle class. If you ad the cost of Social Security and Medicare with contributions to a worker’s 401 plan it is pretty close. If State employees had Social Security and Medicare the State wouldn’t have been able to skip payments. Let’s remember that this system started before health insurance became a real issue with our out of control health care inflation. The core problem is that we have ceded our manufacturing and millions of good jobs in the “rust belt” states to foreign production. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks that this is a good thing. Multi-nationals like Apple and GE can skip paying the taxes that support our workers. Without economic activity our government can’t afford to take care of our citizens. It will only get worse unless changed.