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* The governor promised today to stick with his $300 million savings estimate from the pension reforms…
Gov. Pat Quinn said he intends to be conservative when using expected savings from the massive pension overhaul to help balance next year’s state budget.
At a Statehouse news conference today, Quinn said the administration will stick with an estimated $300 million in savings that he built into his budget proposal earlier this month. The legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability thinks the changes could save the state anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion next year.
Quinn has not yet signed the pension bill, but said he will shortly.
“This is the mother of all cutting spending proposals,” Quinn said. “Anyone who wants cuts in government, you’ve got it. This was a political earthquake.”
Here are all of Quinn’s comments about the pension bill…
* The governor also took a funny little shot at the Tribune’s reactionary editorial board today when asked a question by a Trib reporter about his lite guv choice. Watch…
More on the lite guv…
* Quinn also took questions about the cuts to the State Police. He essentially admitted that his proposed tax hike for education could take the pressure off other areas of the bureaucracy. Have a look-see…
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:30 pm
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Nothing wrong with taking the conservative estimate. There’s still a long way to go.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:36 pm
“This is the mother of all cutting spending proposals,” Quinn said. “Anyone who wants cuts in government, you’ve got it. This was a political earthquake.”
Now, how about that tax increase…
Quinn is going to take it that way, will the GA follow?
Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:04 pm
To quote Mae West: “Fasten your seatbelt boys, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride”…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:11 pm
State Police: We need more of them, so we are going to cut them.
Schools: Kids are our future, so we are going to cut them.
Non essential programs: We are going to have to eliminate them, so we are going to … uh, keep on saying.
Sometimes, ridiculous times demand ridiculous ways. What we have herah is failyah ta communicate.
Comment by vole Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:22 pm
funny stuff scolding the Trib.
but wow, he should be hedging more and more about Garrett - quinn’s people hafta be worried she’ll be seen (like him) as flip flopper if she votes for tax increase. but that’s the least of their problems with her. out-of-touch lake forest millionaire; labor doesn’t like her; proposed that sex ed start in kindergarten. wow.
With swing voters, she’d be the choice…to help Brady.
Comment by Robert Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:34 pm
Like ethics reform, this pension reform is not trivial but it is way short of draconian. The Democrats, including the guv, are engaged in a negotiation with us. They want an income tax increase which will put billions into the state coffers in peretuity, No doubt they hope that pension-reform-lite will do the trick and we’ll open our wallets.
As an ordinary middle class taxpayer, I’m not ready to end the negotiation yet and open my wallet.
Others may feel differently, the important point being that this is a negotiation. It doesn’t have to be over just because the guv signed pension reform lite.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:40 pm
“This was a political earthquake.”
No. I would characterize it as a kerfuffle from someone we thought was a corpse.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:41 pm
I guess, Cassandra, that you would like to cut my pension completely because as “an ordinary middle class taxpayer” you feel no obligation to help fund the retirement of people who work for you. When I hired at the state 21 years ago, I knew I would be making less than I would in the private sector and I am ok with that. The benefits were good and the pension was worth working for. Now that you have screwed my out of 21 years worth of higher pay, you want to screw me out of my pension to??? Shame on you.
Comment by lincolnlover Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:49 pm
What else do you want from pension reform Cassandra and VanillaMan? For the times we are in this was huge in my opinion.
Comment by RJW Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:51 pm
No, it’s clear that Cassandra wants benefits for current employees cut.
Until the current employees “get theirs” it’s reform lite. When the current employees “get theirs” then it’s real reform.
As I said in the previous thread — and folks I’m sure will deny this — it’s essentially sour grapes.
Shoulda filled out that CMS100 employment form when you had the chance. Then it’d be a whole different story. Same poster, different story.
It’s the culture of “if I don’t got, you don’t get” that’s the real issue. (Nevermind the fact that all this reform means that it’ll be harder and harder to attract good talent to public service.)
Comment by Anonymouse Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:01 pm
You know Cassandra, I hope you don’t have kids, cuz they’ll never be able to please you enough, and you could not afford (according to your woe is me attitude) the bills for therapy…just once, I’d like you to say well done to any pol on any accomplishment…I won’t hold my breath…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:10 pm
Well, actually I was thinking he needs to move on to something besides pensions. How about, for example, real contract scrubbing. Flatter management structures-do line workers need 5 levels of management between them and the director? And so on.
I didn’t say it wasn’t an accomplishment. I said
what others have said–it’s not trivial, not huge.
And this IS a negotiation.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:28 pm
“Everybody’s got to tighten their belts”. With that being said I just signed off on a $20,000 pay raise for a civilian chief of staff. What a joke.
Comment by showmethemoney Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:35 pm
“Like ethics reform, this pension reform is not trivial but it is way short of draconian.”
Cassandra, I think you summarized that pretty accurately. You bad!
As a self employed person who has no pension other than what I have saved, no health benefits, no holidays, no sick days, no paid vacation days, gets double taxed on FICA, will get seriously cut on SS benefits before retiring at 67, etc. I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for any arguments state employees have posted here about the pension reforms.
Comment by vole Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:35 pm
Cass: Isn’t what is truly important in life usually a negotiation?
You must not be married sweetie…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:37 pm
Agreed on the contract front. The management thing, though, is off. I’m not sure what agencies are being studied but 9 out of 10 don’t have that problem. The problem now is that EVERYONE is in the union so that pretty much screws any chance of personnel savings.
Comment by RJW Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:38 pm
LOL, Loop Lady.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:38 pm
@vole:
Nobody forced you to work for yourself. Apparently you are a horrible employer as you provide no benefits.
Comment by RJW Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:39 pm
30 years.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:44 pm
if it is to the same gentleman, congrats to you both…Whew!
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:54 pm
That is a long time Loop Lady. Just think State Workers will have to be married to their job for 45 years.
Comment by Reality is Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:08 pm
My husband is self-employed too. He doesn’t have benefits and that is part of the reason I wanted a job that provided GOOD benefits. He won’t have a pension, but I will. He doesn’t have health insurance - I carry him as my dependent. It is not my fault that vole decided to work for himself and that I did not. Did he know about my pension when he made his choice? It was part of MY decision in coming to work here. He made his choice and I made mine. Now he needs to live with it.
Cassandra - Can you expand on what contracts you are talking about? I think I can roll with you on that issue.
Comment by lincolnlover Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:09 pm
Thank you, Greg Hinz and Trib for not believing the hype!
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hinz.pl?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3a7728f43f-5ec8-40f5-92ae-8897f3d11ff0&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:10 pm
Just think State Workers will have to be married to their job for 45 years.
The door is always open.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:14 pm
Any chance the “conservative” estimate allows for taking a reduced lump sum of…say…$300 million today…for $1 billion of future payouts? Just like those commercials offering buyouts of injury settlements.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:22 pm
For all you state workers, I don’t begrudge you your benefits or pensions. I did not bargain or negotiate them. But, you do need to realize that with this reckoning and growing age of scarcity, to make your deal work, your numbers are going to have to decrease and future benefits are going to have to be in line with future revenues. The system simply is not sustainable.
Comment by vole Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:32 pm
It is time for every State, County, and Chicago employee and thier families to boycot the Chicago Tribune!
Comment by Roz Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:40 pm
I am mostly happy with this reform I think the legislature should have gotten the same deal as far as cost of living increases. I do not begrudge current state employees any of their benifets and don’t think it’s right to change it on them midstream. Yes that happened to many in the private sector and it was wrong. I am starting to feel like it has become a race to the bottom everyone ready to throw the next guy under the bus. I believe we need to cut alot of things but anyone who gets up and goes to work everyday and does an honest days work deserves to be compensated. Those who rely on handouts without getting up and going to work I find it hard to have compassion for. I don’t mean a short layoff or a bad year but much more than that and it time to look in the mirror instead of looking for a handout.
Comment by Fed up Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 5:32 pm
When is society going to come to terms that we need to change not only our pensions but - everyone sit down now - social security due to our ever-increasing life spans? For all you complainers, if you’d start dying earlier you would help fix the problem!
Comment by Original Rambler Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 5:47 pm
Somebody take that worn out tie away from him!
Comment by Lefty Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 5:51 pm
Excellent work by the GA. The bipartisanship was
unusual, refreshing.
As for Eden Martin and the Tribune, is there legal support for changing pension benefits for existing employees? I’d like to see their advisory opinions. Until then, I have to regard their prescriptions as wishful thinking.
Comment by james Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 5:58 pm
Much of the short term benefit from this scheme is designed primarily for now to assuage the credit rating agencies, in the hopes that they can actually re-establish a market for state bond debt obligations which is not “junk” status.
If they were smart; which is certainly subject to debate, they would use the greatest amount of conservatively projected savings under this scheme to fund an early retirement program for as many current employees as they could reasonably make eligible to retire under the current plan.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 6:07 pm
Vole,
As a state employee, I agree with you. All this talk of pensions, time to retirement and pay scale compared to the private sector doesn’t help the view folk have about us. When the day of reckoning comes and the state coffer is empty and our bond rating is in the toilet what will happen then? There seems to be a disconnect between public employees and those in private industry. I have experience in both and I think there is - more’s the pity.
Comment by DuPage Dan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 6:57 pm
Reality: I’ve been married almost 30 years myself and have the opposite opine on this turn of events, there ya go-
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 7:13 pm
DuPage Dan;
{When the day of reckoning comes and the state coffer is empty and our bond rating is in the toilet what will happen then?}
In case you did not notice, the day of reckoning is here; the coffer is empty, and there are hands inside it looking for some $6 BILLION owed to them this FY, which they will be lucky to receive any of in NEXT FY. There is limited market for Illinois paper debt because the state is insolvent. The cost of credit that is available is more expensive and less sustainable than perhaps applying the current projected savings towards the cost of an early buy-out program, now that the terms and conditions have changed for the future replacement employees.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 7:16 pm
James, re: likelihood of changing existing benefits…see my comment in the pension extravaganza thread. Short answer - no way, Jose. They may not even be able to touch the 3% COLA.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:07 pm