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* You will recall yesterday that the House and Senate Republican leaders were dubious at best about Speaker Madigan’s appointment of four members to negotiate non-budget issues with the governor. Tina Sfondeles followed up…
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown denied those [GOP] claims, saying the speaker’s offer is an effort to “move along.”
“All we did today was appoint senior leaders of our caucus to go work with the governor on the off-budget issues. We have [state Rep.] Greg Harris, a whole team working on an FY [fiscal year] appropriation proposal and these other people kind of take the governor’s off-budget issues. It’s trying to recognize the calendar and move along.”
Brown said House Democrats are “recognizing what has transpired” with “grand bargain” talks — alluding to the package’s plug having been pulled in March. […]
[House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie] said no reform items are “off limits.”
“It’s up to the governor to define those. His agenda does seem to change from time to time, and I’m not ever sure what’s on it today, but our point is he seems to have off-budget issues. We are happy to meet with him and try to figure out how to resolve those issues.”
Leader Currie, by the way, introduced a new pension reform bill today.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 11:47 am
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See. Everything is cleared up. Hmmm.
Comment by A guy Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 11:58 am
The fact that Rauner hasn’t called this move a ploy tells me he’s serious about getting a budget passed - it would be the first time he passed up a chance to blast Madigan.
Comment by Fax Machine Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 11:59 am
RNUG help! What does this pension reform mean? I kinda blacked out when I read it prohibits collective bargaining or interest arbitration on these amendments. Is labor getting sold down the river? Honestly Im not sure what it means
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:04 pm
=no reform items are “off limits.”=
In this context “reform” equals mischief, illegality, and harm. On this, Currie, Biss, Madigan, Nekritz, Durkin, Rodogno, and Rauner are on the same illegal footing. - Clear & Present example, their illegal “pension reform” proposals.
Comment by Clear & Present Reform Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:22 pm
Just offer an ERI and there won’t be enough of us left to worry about
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:27 pm
===RNUG help!===
He’s working on it.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:31 pm
I’m not RNUG, but the way it reads to me, the only prohibition on collective bargaining relates to the pension changes. I think it was in earlier pension reform attempts too.
Putting aside constitutionally, I continue to find these attempts absurd. Trying to convince Tier 1 folks to go to Tier 2 in order to have future pay increased apply to pensions when no pay increases exist in the foreseeable future seems futile. Creating a defined contribution plan when Tier 2 is essentially free seems counterproductive if the goal is to lower costs.
Comment by AC Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:34 pm
God bless him ( in my best Dickens poor street child voice)
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:50 pm
This does make me wonder. How can one get training or help reading and understanding legislation? Books? Seminars? Online? I freak out when it’s really important and I can’t understand a bill
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:54 pm
HB - Dickensian certainly seems like an appropriate adjective for Illinois future.
Comment by AC Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 12:58 pm
After reading through it fairly quick, the Currie bill looks like a rehash of the Cullerton pension reform proposal. Employees either agree to a delayed annual increase with a 10% sweetener or they keep what they have without future pay raises being pensionable. It does include Article 14 folks though, while Cullerton excluded SERS employees.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:05 pm
Let’s hope something reasonable gets accomplished, this year, this month.
I personally do not think that either Rauner or Madigan are trustworthy, so good luck with that.
The only guaranteed way forward is to marginalize those two, and work around them. Be courageous. Don’t be so fragile and scared of their private promises of what happens if their lines are not towed.
In the meantime, while I put all my hopes in to the emergence of an effective coalition of responsible legislators in Illinois, the Nashville TN area is looking better and better.
Comment by cdog Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:05 pm
The delay for the annual increase election is to age 67 or five years after the start of the annuity, whichever is later. And it will be tied to one half of the CPI-u.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:13 pm
Why did cullerton leave out SERS.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:13 pm
From my understanding, the “choice” for TRS tier 1 :
(1) to agree to delay his or her eligibility for automatic annual increases in service retirement pension as provided in Section 17-119.2 (this says you have to wait 5 years to get your AAI or age 67 which ever is first, and calculated as a percentage of the originally granted service retirement pension or survivor’s pension, equal to 3% or one-half the annual unadjusted percentage increase (but not less than zero) in the consumer price index-u) You will also receive 10% of all currently paid contributions back.
2) The other choice is that any future salary increases do not count as salary, thus not calculated in the FAS.
Comment by Person 8 Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:19 pm
Since the governor refuses to do his job the democrats need to propose a budget with new revenue, borrowing based of future graduates tax rates and cuts.
Surely the governor could not veto a budget and if he does will GOP legislators really want to be the the ones to stop budget.
Comment by Lead don't follow Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:25 pm
Graduated. It graduates
Students have enough debt
Comment by Lead not follow Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:26 pm
If I remember right, Cullerton left out SERS because of the lack of an AFSCME contract. The majority of SERS participants are in AFSCME. No contract rather nullifies the whole idea of future pay increases and if they should be pensionable.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:27 pm
The state is in fiscal emergency. It must layoff all employees and rehire at Tier 2.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:46 pm
===The state is in fiscal emergency. It must layoff all employees and rehire at Tier 2.===
1) check on the legality on that, lol
2) the tax rate would be cited as a way to control revenue, given the last move on revenue was the sunsetting of the temporary increase.
Keep up.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 1:49 pm
== RNUG help! What does this pension reform mean? ==
-Honeybear-, I’m working on it. About 200 pages in. Even with as much as I remember, it takes time to cross-reference and cross-check all of it.
FWIW, we’ve seen most of it before in various bills. But it’s those little buried details …
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 2:03 pm
A good sign if Rauner keeps his mouth shut on this today.
Comment by walker Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 2:06 pm
People are acting like the pension fund is actually in a current hole. It is not. It’s ina a future liability hole. All that figure is how much the state owes in all future payments. Like on your closing documents on any loan it shows you how much total you will pay by the end of the loan. Do you panic and think you better put that much money into an account this month to cover all those future payments. NO YOU DONT so why does this panic the government.
Yes it would be nice to have that much in a fund for the retirement fund but we don’t and we can’t make it all up at once so let’s make sure that the fund, which is making money annually gets annually what it pays out plus a little more.
Then we can focus on infrastructure like education, roads brides and wifi
Comment by Pension issues Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 2:35 pm
-Honeybear-,
The short version, as -A Jack- said, is it is mostly the previous Cullerton bill with some twists buried in it. It’s those twists that you have to pay attention to.
I’ll finish up my take later today or tonight.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:47 pm
Waiting for him to add Mr. T. Then we’ll have the whole A Team working on this.
Comment by A guy Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 3:47 pm
Pension Issues ==All that figure is how much the state owes in all future payments. Like on your closing documents on any loan it shows you how much total you will pay by the end of the loan.==
You’ve got it exactly backwards. The pension liability (funded and unfunded) is the amount you would have to put into the system today so that, together with the expected investment return on the funds, it would be enough to pay off the pensions earned to date. It’s the equivalent of the principal on your mortgage, not the total payments you’ll have to make when you pay the principal over 30 years and have to pay interest, too. If they ever published the total dollar amounts owed as of today, it really would panic people.
Comment by Whatever Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:00 pm
No pension jibba jabba fool! ( que ATeam theme music)
Is RNUG George Pepard?
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:06 pm
So it just occurred to me. Why now with this?
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:07 pm
== So it just occurred to me. Why now with this? ==
To get out front of something that is bubbling up …
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:26 pm
Not talking about non-budget items is obstructionism, while proposing to talk about them is a ploy?
Must be nice to have rather elastic principles.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:29 pm
== Is RNUG George Pepard? ==
No. But if you ask my wife, maybe Sam Eliott … except he has more hair and money!
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:38 pm
== The state is in fiscal emergency. It must layoff all employees and rehire at Tier 2. ==
More accurately: The state is in a SELF INFLICTED fiscal emergency.
A judge would laugh you out of court.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, May 9, 17 @ 4:42 pm