* Alicia Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, has written a new book called “State and Local Pensions: What Now?” Peter Orszag at Bloomberg takes a look…
Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania face enormous gaps, while Delaware, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee have managed their pension plans relatively well.
Why were some [pension] plans so badly underfunded and others not? Munnell’s answer is the biggest surprise in her analysis. She argues that neither the artificially high discount rate nor unions can explain the variation. As she concludes, “The poorly funded plans did not come close to surmounting the lower hurdle associated with a high discount rate; raising the hurdle is unlikely to have improved their behavior. And union strength simply did not show up as a statistically significant factor in any of the empirical analysis.”
The worst-funded plans were not especially generous in their benefits, Munnell found, which is consistent with her argument that union strength isn’t what matters. These plans, though, did tend to share two characteristics: They were disproportionately teachers’ plans, and they used a funding method (called the projected unit credit cost method) that is less stringent than those used by other plans.
The states with huge funding gaps have “behaved badly,” Munnell concludes. “They have either not made the required contributions or used inaccurate assumptions so that their contribution requirements are not meaningful.” She added, “Fiscal discipline simply appeared not to be part of the state’s culture.” [Emphasis added]
* That’s most certainly the case in Illinois, where adequate funding was never a serious concept.
Yet, you’d never know this by reading wannabe governor Bruce Rauner’s latest Tribune op-ed…
The most powerful political force in Illinois today, by far, is the government employee labor unions. They have contributed mightily to our state’s budgetary and economic chaos.
The bosses of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Service Employees International Union; and the Illinois Federation of Teachers/Illinois Education Association are in virtually every legislative meeting, every budget meeting, every policy meeting in Springfield. They take their taxpayer-funded, government-collected union dues and funnel them by the tens of millions to politicians in both political parties. They use their vast membership to supply patronage workers by the thousands for political campaigns throughout the state.
This has created a powerful closed-loop system, with these unions and politicians on the inside, and taxpayers and schoolchildren on the outside. It is a system that allows union bosses to bribe politicians with massive political support in exchange for salaries that are 23 percent higher than in our neighboring states, and even higher still than in the private sector, with stunningly generous pension benefits that allow government employees to retire with higher pay for the rest of their lives than they got while working.
Pensions aside, government salaries may be higher than neighboring states, but the cost of living here is also higher.
* Related…
* Lawsuit filed by Chicago Teachers Union, others seeks to overturn pension law: Pension reform in Illinois got a rare legislative victory when the General Assembly moved to close loopholes that allowed labor leaders to land six-figure public pensions based on their much higher union salaries. The measure, which deals with abuses exposed by the Tribune and WGN-TV, affects a small number of city workers on leaves of absence to work for their unions, and it passed with little dissent.
* Henry Bayer: Unions stand up for the middle class
In the TV ad, a narrator says Gill was fired for pushing “dangerous ideas, advocating unlawful medical practices and methods a hospital said would put lives in danger.”
Gill, an emergency-room physician in Bloomington, publicly supported physician-assisted suicide more than a decade ago. In one letter to the editor of The Pantagraph of Bloomington-Normal in February 1998, he said surveys at the time showed that 60 percent to 70 percent of Americans felt physician-assisted suicide should be legalized. He also said a law proposed in Illinois at the time had safeguards against “using physician-assisted suicide as anything other than merciful relief of the otherwise unavoidable agony that dying is for some patients.” […]
According to Pantagraph stories, Gill was scheduled to begin work at the OSF Medical Group in Clinton in January 1999 after leaving a family practice job in Morton. He was terminated before he began, and a spokeswoman for OSF Medical System said at the time it was because his December 1998 letter brought to light that Gill “embraces and advocates medical treatment methods that are unlawful in this state and that are not acceptable by community medical standards.”
OSF Healthcare also said that Gill damaged OSF’s reputation by publicizing viewpoints that contradicted the system’s Roman Catholic principles.
Gill sued and reached a settlement. He calls the ad “slanderous.” But I’m not sure why. Watch it yourself [Better version uploaded]…
Thursday, Nov 1, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Cooperatives can be formed to support producers such as farmers, purchasers such as independent business owners, and consumers such as electric coops and credit unions. Their primary purpose is to meet members’ needs through affordable goods and services of high quality.
Cooperatives such as credit unions may look like other businesses in their operations and, like other businesses, can range in size. However, the cooperative structure is distinctively different regardless of size. As not-for-profit financial cooperatives, credit unions serve individuals with a common goal or interest.
They are owned and democratically controlled by the people who use their services. Their board of directors consists of unpaid volunteers, elected by and from the membership. Members are owners who pool funds to help other members. After expenses and reserve requirements are met, net revenue is returned to members via lower loan and higher savings rates, lower costs and fees for services.
It is the structure of credit unions, not their size or range of services that is the reason for their tax exempt status - and the reason why almost three million Illinois residents are among 95 million Americans who count on their local credit union everyday to reach their financial goals.
* I told subscribers weeks ago that Sports Facilities Authority board member Manny Sanchez was the problem behind the governor’s inability to name his own CEO. So, in classic old-school hardball style, Sanchez was just wacked…
In a stunning political maneuver, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority elected former TV reporter and gubernatorial aide Kelly Kraft as its new CEO.
The vote came Thursday morning after board member Manny Sanchez, 64, was told he was being replaced because his term was up. Mr. Sanchez, a Chicago attorney, had indicated he was leaning toward voting for the candidate pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lead the entity that runs U.S. Cellular Field.
Gov. Pat Quinn named Dr. Quentin Young, an 89-year-old physician and Civil Rights activist who once chaired the department of medicine at Cook County Hospital to the board.
Mr. Sanchez declined to comment. According to the board, the vote was 4-3 in favor of Ms. Kraft. The other candidate was Diana Ferguson, a former CFO for Chicago Public Schools who had previously worked at Sara Lee Corp.
The vote followed a contentious exchange between board chairman Emil Jones and appointees of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who said Kraft was not as qualified as a candidate the board had interviewed earlier in the day. That candidate, Diana Ferguson, is a former CFO for Chicago Public Schools and Sara Lee Corp.
As we all well remember, Jones has lots of experience with this sort of thing. But I hope he doesn’t need anything out of the mayor any time soon.
Bill Enyart, the Democratic nominee for the 12th Congressional District seat, on Wednesday continued to criticize GOP nominee Jason Plummer for claiming that Enyart and his wife, retired St. Clair County Circuit Judge Annette Eckert, were unethically taking advantage of state-funded pensions.
During a press conference outside his campaign headquarters in downtown Belleville, Enyart said it was “outrageous” that Plummer, in statements Tuesday, misidentified as a “pension” the $3,000 lump sum that Eckert had received upon the death of her mother, a retired public school teacher.
“And to call the death benefit that she received when her mother died a pension and an insider perk is outrageous,” Enyart said. “I find my opponent’s attacks against my wife particularly despicable because Mr. Plummer didn’t tell the truth and he made up facts to suit his agenda. He attacked my wife and my family for his own personal gain.”
In a teleconference for media members, Plummer had accused the couple of exploiting the taxpayer-funded pensions that Eckert paid into through her work as a Cook County assistant public defender in the late 1970s, as a part-time instructor at Southwestern Illinois College and as a judge who spent nearly 20 years on the St. Clair County bench.
* I wasn’t invited to join in on Plummer’s original teleconference where he made the allegations, but others were. Check out this nugget…
Plummer leveled his allegations during a conference call he ended after taking two questions from reporters.
Courage.
* Plummer has said that Mrs. Enyart’s pensions are an an example of “connected” people “gaming” the system. Hmm. Well, I’m sure he must be clean if he’s accusing others of such things. Let’s go back a couple of years…
Plummer, at 23, became Madison County Republican chairman in 2006 and served one two-year term, during which he opened an office for the organization in a strip mall owned by one of his family’s businesses. State records show the county GOP during his tenure paid more than $13,000 in rent to the family business and also had the party pay almost $500 for phone service to a firm in which Plummer was an investor. The headquarters was closed when he left the job.
* The Republicans threaten a lawsuit over the use of a logo…
In a sign that Election Day can’t come too soon now, the Republican National Committee has demanded that a local Democratic candidate for Congress stop breaking the law — by running a picture of its elephant logo.
Yes, folks, in a Beltway-made tempest in a teapot, the RNC wrote to Democrat Brad Schneider’s campaign and told him to “cease and desist” picturing the logo next to a shot of Robert Dold, Mr. Schneider’s opponent, in a new TV ad (below). Mr. Dold is, um, a Republican.
The latter, from RNC Associate Counsel Jon Waclawski, says it has come to his attention that the ad “displays (RNC’s) Official Elephant Logo without RNC permission.”
* Bob Dold sent out a franked mailer just under the limit, which causes Brad Schneider to freak out…
A taxpayer-funded mailer from U.S. Rep. Robert Dold touting job fairs he has hosted is hitting homes in the 10th Congressional District this week while striking a nerve with Dold’s Democratic rival.
Members of Congress are prohibited from sending out public mailings with 500 or more pieces during a 90-day window leading up to an election.
But Dold’s piece, which cost less than $250, falls under an exemption in congressional franking rules because it went out to 499 or fewer homes in his north suburban district.
“This doesn’t raise any red flags on our end,” said Steve Dutton, a spokesman for the House Franking Commission, whose members include Dutton’s boss, U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.).
Still, Democrat Brad Schneider’s congressional campaign is crying foul, saying it’s improper for the Kenilworth Republican to send out the taxpayer-funded mailing alongside campaign mailers so close to the election.
* An outside group gets a big contribution from oil company, does an independent expenditure ad whacking Schneider, and Schneider complains about Dold, who had no involvement…
All of the big super PAC money that’s suddenly sloshing around this election cycle certainly poses some real questions about why certain interests are providing so much help to certain politicians.
But are things as bad as they appear, or more innocent? A political foul, or guilt by association?
Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Which leads to a real-life story about U.S. Rep. Dold, R-Winnetka, who frequently presents himself to voters as a pro-environment kind of guy, but who is being aided this week by a nearly $1 million “independent” TV ad buy funded by a group that has received a possibly record contribution from a big oil company.
Allies of [Rep. Skip Saviano] organized a phony “community forum” in the west suburbs last week. [Democratic challenger Kathleen Willis] went to defend her record. When she got there, she was ridiculed and attacked personally. But she had one key ally, Southwest Side Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-12th).
As soon as Sandoval got up to speak to defend Willis, the organizers tried to shout him down. Sandoval’s message was clear.
“The Republicans have never cared about the concerns of the Latino community. It’s the Democrats who have supported Hispanics,” Sandoval said over and over again.
The meeting erupted into confusion. Saviano’s activists tried to push Sandoval to stop talking. But he refused to budge. Sandoval is not called “El Cabello” for nothing.
* Best comment gets an invite to my election night party, co-hosted by Google and NBC5. Yesterday’s winner was Small Town Liberal, for his funny spoof of a famous “Goodfella’s” scene…
Now the guy’s got Luis as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Luis. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Luis. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Madigan, he can call Luis. But now the guy’s gotta come up with Luis’ votes every election, no matter what. Business bad? “#@%! you, deliver them.” Oh, you had a fire? “#@%! you, deliver them.” Place got hit by lightning, huh? “#@%! you, deliver them.”
In a House district that is 51-percent Latino, state Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano said Tuesday he has lined up backing from the best-known Latino politician in Illinois.
Saviano (R-Elmwood Park), who is running against Democrat Kathleen Willis for the 77th House District, plans to announce an endorsement by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) during an event Tuesday at Saviano’s Wood Dale campaign office.
“The leaders of the community know what I’ve done, and I’ve been working to get that message out,” Saviano told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“This just solidifies my whole record with the community,” Saviano said of Gutierrez’ endorsement.
* Here’s a photo of Democratic Congressman Gutierrez with GOP Rep. Saviano after last night’s big endorsement announcement…
* The Question: Caption?
Best comment wins a hard-to-get invitation to my election night party, which is being co-sponsored by Google. Yes, Google. I’m not making that up. I swear.
The prospect of Joe Walsh being re-elected to Congress is a bit like the threat of an actual zombie apocalypse: absolutely terrifying.
But while a zombie apocalypse is pretty unlikely, Joe Walsh’s reelection is a very real possibility and we only have 6 days left to prevent it. Will you contribute $10 now to help us defeat Joe Walsh?
Not convinced yet? Here are three more ways a second term in Congress for Joe Walsh would be like a zombie apocalypse:
1. They both involve lots of screaming. In the case of a zombie apocalypse, the screams would come from frightened victims. In the case of a Joe Walsh second term, the screams would come from a congressman who yells at his constituents and said he went to Washington to “scream from the mountaintop.”
2. Both would bring back to life something better left alone. The idea of dead bodies rising from their graves is pretty scary. So are the retro policies Joe Walsh wants to resurrect - including big tax giveaways to the wealthy and policies that side with big corporations that pollute the air and ship jobs overseas.
3. No matter how fast you run away, you won’t be able to escape its effects. If Joe Walsh is reelected, it would have consequences for everyone - from seniors who rely on Medicare to students seeking an affordable education.
We’re having some Halloween fun, but truly, we can’t afford to head into Election Day unprepared.
* From 21st Century Democrats…
It might be Halloween, but what is a scarier thought than Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the White House and the Republicans in control of the Senate?
That would be horrible for our country.
But we are close to reaching our goal – we need to raise only $2,700 before midnight tonight.
With your help, we can do it!
Our candidates are counting on your support, so let’s make Halloween the scariest day of the year, not Election Day!
* And, of course, the Illinois Republican Party’s scary message about Speaker Madigan…
Be safe this Halloween. Observe your local ordinances regarding Trick-or-Treating hours, and above all, be on the alert for Democrats who may try to trick you with more debt, higher taxes, more wasteful spending and sucking the blood (money) out of suburban taxpayers with their plan to shift their pension mistakes on suburban homeowners who already pay some of the highest tax rates in the country.
House Speaker Mike Madigan, State Senate President John Cullerton and Governor Pat Quinn are plotting, scheming and threatening the state with more of the same, tired, 67% tax hike politics.
It’s a poisonous brew, but there’s no need to scream or be frightened.
Republican candidates can reverse the curse and put Illinois back on the right track.
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The cable industry is asking lawmakers to place a NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. HB 5440 is not about fairness, equity or parity – it’s a tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV. They cannot afford another NEW tax – not now and not in this economy!
HB 5440 Will Hurt Illinois Families and Small Businesses
• Satellite TV subscribers will see their monthly bills go up 5%.
• This tax will impact every bar, restaurant and hotel that subscribes to satellite TV service, which will translate into higher prices, decreased revenues, and fewer jobs.
• Rural Illinois has no choice: In many parts of Illinois, cable refuses to provide TV service to rural communities. Satellite TV is their only option.
HB 5440 Is Not About Parity or Fairness
• Cable’s claim that this discriminatory tax is justified because satellite TV doesn’t pay local franchise fees could not be further from the truth. Cable pays those fees to local towns and cities in exchange for the right to bury cables in the public rights of way—a right that Comcast and Charter value in the tens of billions of dollars in their SEC filings.
• Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: We use satellites—unlike cable, we don’t need to dig up streets and sidewalks to deliver our TV service.
• Making satellite subscribers pay franchise fees—or, in this case, an equivalent amount in taxes—would be like taxing the air It’s no different than making airline passengers pay a fee for laying railroad tracks.
* The inability to date of third party candidate Lance Tyson to make sufficient headway against indicted and ousted Chicago Democratic state Rep. Derrick Smith (Tyson’s own polling shows him getting just 38 percent) will likely make some Democratic hacks quite proud, in a perverse sort of way. All their work over the past 60 years has produced a population that automatically votes “D.”
But a number of residents say they are skeptical of the federal bribery charges and the “new guy” party leaders are suddenly supporting. Many said they were sticking with the familiar.
“I just vote Democrat all the way across. Whoever’s there, I give them a chance,” said Percy Winfields, 74, a resident of an apartment complex that caters to seniors.
Besides, Winfields said, Smith showed up before Christmas last year and delivered on a promise to provide turkeys to the tenants for the holiday.
“He didn’t lie,” the retired truck driver said. “That’s a plus right there, especially when he’s feeding you.”
In my opinion, that’s the classic Democratic machine in a nutshell right there.
…Adding... This is also, in a nutshell, a strong example of how spectacularly the Republican Party has completely alienated huge blocs of voters.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) has released his final commercial of the election cycle for the Peoria area, featuring an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Peoria).
Schock is from Peoria and remains popular there, so this will help.
Christie Schilling: “He rejected the congressional pension because it was the right thing to do.”
Bobby Schilling: “On top of that, I’ve returned $110,000 of my budget to the taxpayer.”
Aaron Schock: “Bobby Schilling’s election to Congress made a real difference. For the first time in decades, we’ve spent less than the prior year. Cheri Bustos will cancel my vote in Congress. Bobby Schilling will be a real partner. We need to keep him.”
Bobby Schilling: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, this is about fixing things so that people can get to work. I’m Bobby Schilling and I approved this message.”
* Schilling’s Rockford closer is similar to the Peoria ad. Watch…
* Script…
Hank Gray: “Bobby Schilling leads by example.”
Christie Schilling: “He rejected the congressional pension because it w
Bobby Schilling: “In Rockford, Illinois it’s all about jobs. If we allow the tax hikes to go into effect in January, what’s going to happen is it’s going to cost in Illinois alone about 32,000 jobs. It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican, this is about fixing things so that people , it’s going to cost in Illinois alone
* Schilling-Bustos Both Receive Endorsements: Democrat Cheri Bustos received the endorsement of her former employer the Quad City Times where she worked for several years as a reporter and editor. Meantime, incumbent Republican Bobby Schilling picked up the endorsements of the Rock Island Argus and Dispatch and the Galesburg Register Mail. Schilling has also received the nod of the Peoria Journal Star, Rockford Register Star, Freeport Journal Standard and Chicago Tribune.
* As I told you late yesterday, Jason Plummer’s campaign held a press conference yesterday to “expose” his Democratic opponent Bill Enyart for being on the public pension dole. But, as it turns out, Enyart is not receiving any pensions. His wife, a retired judge, is. And while Plummer claimed that Enyart and his wife were receiving seven pensions, Enyart’s wife was receiving three, two of which are quite small.
Jason Plummer accused Bill Enyart and his family of living large off public pensions Tuesday, a claim Enyart rebutted in the latest fight between the two candidates for Illinois’ 12th congressional district.
Plummer, the Republican candidate, claimed Democrat Enyart and his wife, retired Judge Annette Eckert, collect more than $156,000 annually from among three public pension systems. Plummer also claimed Enyart was in line to get at least three more pensions but didn’t produce any documents to prove it.
The substance of Plummer’s accusations Tuesday focused on three of Eckert’s pensions collected from employment as a Cook County assistant public defender in the 1970s, from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, and from her judicial pension. Plummer said he obtained the information through various Freedom of Information Act requests. […]
Plummer said what he found on Enyart is indicative of the type of pension abuse “well-connected people” perpetrate in Illinois.
Nowhere does the article point out that Plummer more than doubled the number of pensions Eckert actually receives. And nowhere does the paper make clear that Plummer’s own research shows that Enyart himself isn’t receiving a pension.
Instead, we just get your basic he-said, he-said crud.
* Enyart is planning a press conference this afternoon, so The Southern will have an opportunity to redeem itself.
This attack by Plummer, coming on the heels of his campaign’s public insults directed at Enyart’s son, is the most poorly executed and untruthful “planned” earned media attack of any Illinois congressional race this fall. And that’s really saying something, considering.
* I’m not sure what this TV ad will accomplish, but the Chicago Federation of Labor is putting big money behind 1000 Chicago TV ratings points over two weeks. From a press release…
The Chicago Federation of Labor this week released a 30-second television ad aimed at bolstering turnout by working men and women in the November election and encouraging them to remain engaged when lawmakers return to work later in the month to address issues such as pension reform.
The ad, titled “Our Voice,” recalls that union members have worked for generation to build not only our cities but our communities as well. In recent years, however, politicians and others have tried to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights and cut wages, health care benefits and retirement plans. The best way that working men and women can fend of these attacks is by exercising their voice at the ballot box.
The Chicago Federation of Labor made a substantial buy for broadcast television for the week before Election Day. After the election, a modified ad will run for an additional week urging working people to keep a careful eye on politicians as they address issues such as collective bargaining and pension reform.
“There is so much at stake in this election for working people. They can make the difference in a number of close races by exercising their voice on Election Day,” said Jorge Ramirez, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor. “But that’s not the finish line. Working men and women need to stay engaged as elected officials go to work on issues that have a direct impact on them and their families.”
* Again, I’m not sure how much this will encourage union members to vote, but it’s still quite a dramatic and well-done video. You should definitely watch…
* We Ask America decided to do a poll of likely Illinois voters for the presidential race…
There’s been a surprising amount of conjecture coming our way lately about the possibility of Mitt Romney inching closer to Barack Obama in Illinois. We’ve not paid much attention to that conjecture until it started to be uttered in some national circles and a handful of reporters we respect called to ask if there was anything to it.
* Turns out, there’s nothing to it. President Obama leads Gov. Romney 57-41, with 2 points going to an unnamed third party candidate. Click for a better view of regional crosstabs…
For those of you uninitiated in the Illinois political scene — outside of following the hijinks of our politicians in Popular Prison Monthly — Chicago and Suburban Cook County each account for about 20% of the vote in the Land of Lincoln. No matter how well Romney does in the five suburban “collar counties” or downstate (the rest of Illinois outside of Chicago, Suburban Cook & the Collars), the huge hunk of burning love that his home base provides the president simply cannot be toppled. Some of our projections include turnout scenarios that put Romney as close as 10 points from the lead, but there is no way that Chicagoland is going to abandon its Favorite Son.
