Don’t punish those with modest pensions

Mike Riopell in the Daily Herald report “What lame ducks could do” cites the upcoming lame-duck session of Illinois lawmakers as “setting the stage for resolving contentious issues like pension cuts.” I certainly hope this is resolved thoughtfully. I have a modest pension from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. I worked hard for it and paid my share into it as did my employers, public libraries.

Librarians in Illinois public libraries, in spite of our advanced degrees, aren’t very well paid. We get much less than teachers with similar degrees. To rip away our pensions when we can no longer work and must rely on them to live is a disgrace. Why should public workers, many of them women, be impoverished because politicians didn’t handle our money correctly and gave away huge pensions to their fellow politicians?

Neither I nor my library employers did anything shady, but we’re being punished. Don’t try to blame Illinois’ bad financial standing on the ordinary retired workers from small towns and libraries all over the state. Bite the bullet and fix the system and take away undeserved huge pensions if you must, but don’t take away the modest, well-deserved pensions of the rest of us. We are retirees, not a political football!

Joy Kennedy

Arlington Heights