Here Comes "Reform"
A deal has been reached for state pensions, the lions share of Illinois' problems:
- After years of lurches and stops, House and Senate leaders finally struck a landmark pension-reform accord Wednesday that ultimately could shave $160 billion from the state’s future pension liabilities and lift Illinois from its status as the least creditworthy state in the country.
But the deal expected to be voted on next week in Springfield sets up a hostile legislative confrontation with public-employee unions that claim the agreement is unconstitutional.
It also runs headlong into the crosswinds of the 2014 gubernatorial campaign, In which Gov. Pat Quinn is poised to grab a huge legislative prize, and one of his top GOP rivals — private equity investor Bruce Rauner — is said to be trying to tube the plan through back-channels.
A series of secret, closed-door meetings involving the legislative leaders that date back to October culminated Wednesday with a deal to reel in annual, cost-of-living increases current and future state retirees get, lower pension contributions from existing employees and hike retirement ages.
Great - secret, closed door meetings that exclude representatives of the pensioners can only mean fantastic deals are afoot to enrich lawyers suing on Constitutional grounds.
Crain's Chicago Business has coverage here.
Tribune here.
This doesn't directly affect Police pensions, but you know that Rahm is going to use it as a "framework" for things to come.
Crain's Chicago Business has coverage here.
Tribune here.
This doesn't directly affect Police pensions, but you know that Rahm is going to use it as a "framework" for things to come.
Labels: pension
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
62 Comments:
Is Vaseline covered under obummercare? It's about to be shoved up some public employee ass.
the precedent has been set...
'you have to pass the bill to find out what's in it' lmao
it's a trifecta.
they lied, broke promises, stole the money and made a mockery of the constitution.
but it's not the first time.
you let them whittle away free speech protection with city ordinance bullshit. whittle away right to bear arms with more city ordinance bullshit. and now they break the pensions so who's to blame. who followed and enforced the wishes of dictators over the constitution.
this is just the tip, the precedent has been set. what kind of future is our kids and family going to have.
you guys backed them up -- so cry me a river the precedent has already been set. the constitution is not worth the paper it's written on and the state control media will praise the theft of our families future as a great win.
the retirement food stamp and obamacare line is right over there to the left.
The State Pension Deal will be the 'Shadow' deal for which City Pensions will eventually become. Sooner rather that later. It will become a new pension for current Retirees of the Police, Fire, Municipal Employees, etc. Naturally, current and future Retirees will receive less income and benefits will be less as they move into Obamacare January 1st, 2017. Where is the justice...you pay, they play.
shaving 160 billion dollars from pension benefits.
you know what that means.
why it enables more corporate tax breaks for the invisible 'much needed job creators' and therefore more campaign contributions for the clouted ones.
i'll bet rahm is rehearsing his dead-dead-dead skit again. campaign dinner par-tay time.
Current pension costs must be lowered, and pensions made a thing of the past. Perhaps union dues and fees could be channeled into retirement plans, instead of going towards rewarding politicians and political action.
I in no way live out of my means but it looks like I'll have to stay until the bitter end.
someone told me a long time ago.. I did not plan to fail I failed to plan. Deferred comp was set up for a reason by planners. Other planners utilized other investment vehicles.
Quit bitching and start to plan. Don't think you are entitled to anything. We to suck on the governments tit. Oh so nice...
Thank God FOP has Mark Donahue as its lobbyist. He will be able to stop this. Mark borders on genius. He is so intelligent.
Whatever this "reform" is Rahm will take that as a starting point and do his damnedest to bend us over even further.... remember Rahm says it's for the children!
Unbelievable that deals are still done or get done in this day and age with all the f***ups this polititicians create and created! Again I'm sure there pensions will be fine! They caused this mess pay up what you owe!
Hey pensions are a contract! You know Rham and these hacks would not want to break a contract? Oh wait that's only if the contract is with their friends and company!
If you want a COLA in your retirement years take a few minutes and call your State Senator and Rep. They tally the calls pro and con.
This is worth tens of thousands of dollars in retirement. You earned it. Social Security gets a COLA and there is no talk of taking it away from them. With inflation around the corner you will need it.
"Private Equity Investor Bruce Rauner is trying to tube the plan through back channels".
Mr. Outsider, $18 dollar watch, mega-ranch owner, conservative businessman, what a putz!
Mr. Crony Capitalist, best friend of Rahm Emanuel and the Daley's is more like it.
BTW, that was a great stunt using Bill Daley to keep Madigan's daughter out of the Democratic primary because you think Quinn is easier to beat.
Not only does Rauner not want Quinn to get credit from the voting public, but he thinks the plan doesn't go far enough.
Rauner wants pensions and unions busted, period.
He wants any retirement savings to be channeled to his hedge fund buddies via 401(k)s.
One thing is obvious. A "Gold Braid" pension for exempts is an annual multimillion dollar boondoggle that drains our pension fund. It's only purpose is for politicians to reward their compliant political hacks to our detriment.
F Rham and Shields Capparelli
I got a bad feeling about this one.
Now, Kees me you fool!!!!
Mike Shields and The We Are One Coalition are asking every police officer to call their legislators to vote against pension deform on Tuesday, December 02. Have your family members call or email also.
The people this is really gonna fuck is guys and gals who had there shit together and got on this job at a young age. People who could retire at 50 with 26 to 28 years on the job. Beacuse u know there gon a raise the age to retire to at least 55. I cant imagine having to stay in this hell hole another 5 years. Fuck u politicians. I aint doing shit for you assholes.
Thanks Mark for keeping us so well informed on this. But any realist knows that this was coming and you in no way could of stopped this as a simple lobbyist.
But the fact that you were too busy to been anywhere near the State of Illinois Building and give moral support to the affected unions or to make a quote in opposition to this speaks volumes on how hard you think you have to work for this 75k we pay you up and above your dic’s pension.
Everyone should say a prayer for those retirees/widows/widowers that are 85 and older by the time Rahm gets through with them Aldi’s will seem like gourmet food.
Regardless Mark I hope your family has a wonderful thanksgiving as to all of the rest of us who work for this city.
All you local government employees that continued to vote these criminal pieces of horse shit into office, you get what you deserve. Hahahahaha.
Why do think the commies( sorry I mean democrats)want to take away your guns.
Another asshole blaming the wrong guy... ITs not rahm its not MC it the old system...
Watch this vote any state legislator that votes for this bullshit better not get any public union donation money or votes. The only way to stop this is to throw the incumbent. Scum bags out.
Gold braid should end or be based on the last 10 years Average salary
Anonymous said...
Thank God FOP has Mark Donahue as its lobbyist. He will be able to stop this. Mark borders on genius. He is so intelligent.
11/28/2013 02:29:00 AM
You meant devious?
Time to quit working for a living... I will let the government provide me with Free housing, medical, dental, education, utilities, cell phone, groceries, public transportation, etc. Enjoy your retro!
Reduce contributions to an under funded pension fund.
Sounds like smoke and mirrors . Reduced cola for current retires. Doesn't make sense . Some workers received 80% of pay , cpd does not , cpd also does not receive compounded cola increase . Let's start with term limits and no pension for career politicians, not the working man
Time to vote out every current politician , we can't do any worse .
Where is fop,pbpa , an increase in enforcement is necessary now.
Buy me out tiny dancer! Stick all of those 9 and a half fingers you got left into the money pot (TIFF Funds) and give me back my money. This is business, right? Quid pro quo.
1) Give me back all the money I have contributed in 16 years with 3% compounding interest, to be directly deposited into my deferred compensation account, non-taxed.
2) 5 years of upfront pension payment, non-taxed, to be deposited directly into my deferred compensation account immediately upon signing a waiver to opt out of the pension, PLUS half of that amount as a penalty to the city for breaking their end of the contract when I took the job. (if my pension per year upon retirement would be $50,000, I want 5 years upfront for a total of $250,000 PLUS the penalty fee, in this scenario $125,000, for a total of $375,000).
That is what it is going to take to buy me out with 16 years under my scenario. You (the city), want to play ball?
I'll bet you the unions will still throw money at the Democrats.
Keep working hard assholes. Keep working hard. The city doesn't honor their word, whether it's the NATO six day grievance or the desk sgt. grievance or other issues. The city walks all over our contract all of the time. The reason is because we allow it. If we don't stand up for ourselves, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Not a word of this pension reform at the last FOP meeting. Mike and Bill were to busy fighting about who gets captains pay. Even Donahue who came to the mic to plead for Bill didn't mention it. I guess we are not an FOP priority. Time for change.
"A deal has been reached for state pensions, the lions share of Illinois' problems"
Illinois' problems are not pensions. Illinois' problems are thieving politicians who don't know how to stop spending. It's not that hard to live on a budget.
"...secret, closed door meetings that exclude representatives of the pensioners..."
Doesn't Illinois have "open meetings" legislation?
rb
Call your state senator and representative now..
EARNED NOT GIVEN said...
One thing is obvious. A "Gold Braid" pension for exempts is an annual multimillion dollar boondoggle that drains our pension fund. It's only purpose is for politicians to reward their compliant political hacks to our detriment.
11/28/2013 06:12:00 AM
Exactly! And what about the politicians with the multiple pensions? Little Richie has three but where is the outrage?
We get what we ask for. We are not holding the politician accountable for not contributing their share. We gave our correct percentage ever pay check. Why are they allowed to ruin the pension and get away with it...
B O H I C A
Why does Bruce Rauner only talk about his "hard working Swedish immigrant grandfather" on his mother's side?
Why doesn't he brag about his other three grandparents? Is he ashamed of them? What were they about?
Why doesn't he brag about his dad, the Motorola Vice President?
Why do think the commies( sorry I mean democrats)want to take away your guns.
11/28/2013 10:28:00 AM
______________________________
You're an idiot if you want to blame just one of the political parties for this fiasco. Get one thing through your skull; neither party cares about us. They think we're spoiled and don't deserve what we have promised to us. Stop blaming one party or the other and start trying to figure out which, if any politicians are on our side, and if not, prepare yourself for less benefits than you were promised when you softened up to work a job where you missed innumerable family events and weekends.
The buses better be packed with coppers, their wives and families, it's coming, so get ready boys and girls
And we're supposed to trust these fucks not to double cross us again in 20 years...yeah ok this is what got us in this position.
They are reducing the employee's contribution to an underfunded pension system for one reason and one reason only. This may seem to make no sense at all but these thieving Politicians know that by decreasing employee contributions by a paltry 1%, they may be able to skirt Article 13, section 5 of the Illinois Constitution which prohibits exactly what they are doing . Every Politician that votes for this needs to be dumped from office, no exceptions. Believe me when I tell you Rahm is drawing up the trailer Bill as I type this to Include Chicago Police and Fire.
Anonymous said...
The people this is really gonna fuck is guys and gals who had there shit together and got on this job at a young age. People who could retire at 50 with 26 to 28 years on the job. Beacuse u know there gon a raise the age to retire to at least 55. I cant imagine having to stay in this hell hole another 5 years. Fuck u politicians. I aint doing shit for you assholes.
11/28/2013 08:47:00 AM
Raising the age for people with a retirement date already set will suck big time. That will be in court, no doubt. Remember though that the judges have already been bought off.
The judges were already promised that their pensions were not to be part of this. Neither are the State Reps and State Senators and Governor.
As for retirement age at 55, it was that previously, in the 1970's.
Anonymous said...
Call your state senator and representative now..
11/28/2013 02:37:00 PM
The fix is in buddy.
Go to We Are One and call your legislator.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Gold braid should end or be based on the last 10 years Average salary
11/28/2013 11:20:00 AM
Gold braid should be eliminated or else pay double into the fund, 18%, to help make up for the short period of time they pay in at the higher rate versus the ginormas pension they steal from our fund.
In my opinion, the max supervisor's pension should be tied to their max civil service rank. And pension contributions for salary above civil service rank should go into an IRA, matched by the City if the City wants to. Paid in cash to the exempt upon retirement or else deposited to deferred comp per IRS rules.
PENSION REFORM eliminate the "GOLD BRAID BILL" that all the political hacks receive.
bottom line - state has no money to pay pensions w/o some kind of leash on future benefit increases.
already >25% of the state budget is for government employee pensions.
if it gets much worse the voters will rebel and cause all kinds of havoc that might result in who knows what.
you can bitch and moan all you want but when a very small number of people are sucking up 25% of the state budget, it is not sustainable. it does not matter how it got to this point. that is where it is and there has to be some resolution that is actually doable unless you want complete chaos.
government employee pensions of all kinds in Chicago are in a similar situation. somehow one has to find a way to fund future benefits w/o a voter revolt. as a practical matter, reducing the rate of future increases in benefits is the least painful way for everyone.
There is an easy fix to the pension "problem" Take all the money in the politicians fund (I'm sure it's well funded) and leave only thier personal contributions. Put all the rest of the money into the public workers funds. Tah dah, pensions fully funded, problem solved. The politicians contributions can be the start of thier 401k retirement plan. There is no reason an elected official should get a defined benefits pension plan. They can take that 401k with them wherever they go. They always claim those plans are good enough for the little people, why not them? This whole pension "crisis" was caused by thier negligent to borderline criminal refusal to do thier job and fund the pension plans appropriately. They just kicked the can down the road. Well now we are at the end of the road, and somehow this mess is our fault? I think the politicians ought to be held accountable, and taking away thier pensions would be a good start. Plus think of the savings!
The t.v. Report I saw said that the agreement was hatched in Chicago. That means that the mayor will get what he wants. He can't let a good crisis go to waste! It will all be subject to a court challenge. That's if anyone wants to challenge it and if they can find a judge in this entire state that was not slated, appointed or elected by the democratic machine. I wish the fuck that I never had anything to do with this fucked up and getting worse city!
To all the P/Os that wanted to jump in with the democrat backed teachers union and that racist, Karen Lewis, a big Fuck you too.
Buy me out tiny dancer! Stick all of those 9 and a half fingers you got left into the money pot (TIFF Funds) and give me back my money. This is business, right? Quid pro quo.
1) Give me back all the money I have contributed in 16 years with 3% compounding interest, to be directly deposited into my deferred compensation account, non-taxed.
2) 5 years of upfront pension payment, non-taxed, to be deposited directly into my deferred compensation account immediately upon signing a waiver to opt out of the pension, PLUS half of that amount as a penalty to the city for breaking their end of the contract when I took the job. (if my pension per year upon retirement would be $50,000, I want 5 years upfront for a total of $250,000 PLUS the penalty fee, in this scenario $125,000, for a total of $375,000).
That is what it is going to take to buy me out with 16 years under my scenario. You (the city), want to play ball?
-----
You will be working til' 68 years old if you depend on your 457D / 401K plans.
Ask all the other people in this country who have 401K's ... they are planning on working into their 70's.
I have over $550,000 in my deferred however I still consider it will be used to supplement my pension if I live into my 70's and beyond.
work.....until you die.....it's the new American way
We have to pass the pension bill to find out what's in it
"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."
Remember when former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said this about
ObamaCare?
Well, the Illinois General Assembly is repeating that horrible mistake, and we need your help today to stop them.
Illinois' legislative leaders announced a pension "fix" right before Thanksgiving. And lawmakers have been called back to Springfield on Tuesday to vote on the measure.
The only problem? No one has seen the bill.
Legislative leaders released an outline of the plan earlier today. We quickly provided a breakdown of the proposal – based on what we know, it delays reform and keeps Illinois in a constant state of crisis.
It's likely that a bill will not appear until late Monday. That means legislators will only have a few hours to digest a complicated piece of legislation dealing with the most critical fiscal issue
in Illinois before voting on it.
We've been down this road before. We know where it leads. We need your help right now to mount a full-scale campaign to make sure that this bill – negotiated in secret, agreed on in secret and
being drafted in secret – gets to see some daylight before legislators vote on it.
Please help us today – let's demand to see the bill!
In liberty,
Jonathan Greenberg
Vice President of External Relations
Illinois Policy Institute
190 S. LaSalle St.
Suite 1630
Chicago, Illinois 60603
(312) 346.5700
jgreenberg@illinoispolicy.org
P.S. Illinois taxpayers and government workers can't afford pension "glitches." Lawmakers should
refuse to pass a pension bill to find out what is in it. We need your help right now to block a
backdoor pension deal.
bottom line - state has no money to pay pensions w/o some kind of leash on future benefit increases.
already >25% of the state budget is for government employee pensions.
if it gets much worse the voters will rebel and cause all kinds of havoc that might result in who knows what.
you can bitch and moan all you want but when a very small number of people are sucking up 25% of the state budget, it is not sustainable. it does not matter how it got to this point. that is where it is and there has to be some resolution that is actually doable unless you want complete chaos.
government employee pensions of all kinds in Chicago are in a similar situation. somehow one has to find a way to fund future benefits w/o a voter revolt. as a practical matter, reducing the rate of future increases in benefits is the least painful way for everyone.
Problem is not all pensions are equal. Trib today stated a teacher in Illinois with 30 years get over $72,000, 3% COLA compounded annually and free health insurance and in most cases they pay little or nothing into the pension. Even in Chicago Karen Lewis claims teachers pay 9% into their pension which s a total lie. They pay 2% and the CPS pays the remainiong 7% and that money comes from our property taxes, so not all pensions are equal. We dont need a raise next year, just have the city pick up 7 % of our 9% pension contribution, thats about equal to a $5,000 raise
Politics is the gentile art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. Oscar Ameringer
Remember that Rauner is Rahm's buddy.
All you local government employees that continued to vote these criminal pieces of horse shit into office, you get what you deserve. Hahahahaha.
Who are the wonderful politicians that we should have been voting for? Ah, the republicans you say. Yeah, they love us. Naive much?
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Remember that Rauner is Rahm's buddy.
11/29/2013 08:24:00 PM
That's the kiss of death. I don't need to know any more. Fuck Rauner in that case.
To all the P/Os that wanted to jump in with the democrat backed teachers union and that racist, Karen Lewis, a big Fuck you too.
11/29/2013 10:53:00 AM
Hey there little fella,
Do you play left field, or come out of it? Please explain the context of your aggression sir or maam.
Yeah, sure...it was a higher minimum retirement age 40 years ago.
Let's see, today, I'm so glad because at 50 I can start drawing 50 percent if I did at least 20 years.
You're right, the lords and vassals, our beloved patrons, they are way too generous.
we must do the honorable thing and volunteer to give back to our masters what we have no right to accept, this benevolent gift upon us undeserving wretches.
Let's go backward, that will solve everything.
Rauner, is the guy who gave Rahm help in his investment banking career. Through the efforts of Rauner, Rahm made 10 million. It's all documented in the book, Mayor 1%. Rauner, is a shill for Rahm.
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