“In [these] posts, we continue to shine a spotlight on right-wing politicians and
anti-worker ideologues who are leading the charge to gut public pensions.
Today’s subject is Illinois governor Bruce Rauner.
“While
relatively new to the office and without the shameful track record of New Jersey governor Chris
Christie,
Rauner is a rabidly anti-labor politician, who is threatening the retirement
security of Illinois teachers, firefighters, nurses, and police officers.
“Some
people say Illinois has a pension problem, but in reality Illinois has a
politician problem. For decades, politicians in Springfield have made
irresponsible decisions that have led to a massive underfunding of Illinois
public pensions. The state legislature passed a law in 2013 attempting to
curtail pension benefits in order to address this underfunding, but it was struck down as
unconstitutional
by the Illinois Supreme Court this year.
“Since
taking office at the beginning of this year, Governor Rauner has proposed a
number of anti-worker measures, including creating so-called ‘right-to-work zones’, abolishing fair share fees for public sector unions, and eliminating collective
bargaining for
public workers.
“On public pensions, Governor Rauner has been no better. He has suggested amending the Illinois constitution to remove the protection for pensions. He has also proposed a plan that would cut benefits for firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other public workers.
“Fortunately,
this radical restructuring of pension plans would be unlikely to survive a
court challenge. The people of Illinois need politicians who will responsibly
address the state's budget and fiscal problems, not needlessly attack the
people who make our communities work” (National Public Pension Coalition).
Amen!
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot of lawyers there that don't know what they are doing. It is really a shot in the dark and they hope they have power over the appointed judges of the court. Thank God they don't. The governor sure does not like the checks and balances in place. The next thing will be to create a deferred compensation for the coming teacher shortage. What form of lie with that be this time. Money is always a consideration. In my grarrama school district 103 IL, after the referendum was passed they started busing and destroyed the neighborhood school. We did not nee it to balance enrollment or racial balance. I asked and they said it was so 3RD grade teachers would not need to share materials and could talk to one another. We had a wonderful neighborhood school. The board also said it was part of the referendum, and it was NOT. We ran after the school board who created a parent committee that after 2 years suggested busing and the board reluctantly agreed. By then, my kids were out of the system. We were told we did not have to worry about busing costs. Now busing is 11% of the budget and the last thing they would cut.
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