Motion on pension proposal a way to slow the process, lawmaker says
After the Illinois House voted Wednesday to the make the state's full payment to its pension systems next fiscal year, state Rep. Kathy Ryg put the brakes on the measure.
Ryg, a Democrat from Vernon Hills, said she did so not to kill the pension funding, but to slow down a budget process that has reached warp speed in Springfield.
"We haven't done our due diligence yet," Ryg said Thursday. "Spending bills are popping up everywhere, and we're being asked to vote in a vacuum of information. We need to take some time to explore all the ramifications."
The measure, introduced by House Speaker Michael Madigan, called for the state to pay roughly $4 billion to its pension systems. Ryg voted in favor of the measure Wednesday, but then moved to reconsider it. That action keeps the proposal bill from going to the Senate.
Charles McBarron, spokesman for the Illinois Education Association, said it was disappointing to see the bill locked up in that way. The IEA and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the state's other teachers union, have pushed for the state to honor its pension obligations.
Ryg stressed Thursday that her motion doesn't mean the pensions won't be funded next year. She simply wanted to call for more discussion of the issue, so that lawmakers could explore the pensions' long-term sustainability and consider how such a payment would affect the state's budget deficit.
"If we spend the money there, I have to ask, what are we not spending money on?" she said. "It's pretty frustrating that we're being asked to put a budget together in this piecemeal fashion."
Ryg said an amendment will soon be introduced in an attempt to reopen discussion of the issue. She said she will continue to seek ways to fund the pensions in full.