Cut pensions, pay instead of tax hike
The headline in the June 18 Daily Herald reads that children who are hurt will suffer the most by state government spending cuts. While I have sympathy for the departments and organizations that aid children, the mentally disabled, the addicted, etc., I am not willing to see an increase in my taxes to support these agencies. Not when a mere 3,194 retirees are being paid over $319,400,000 MILLION dollars in benefits PER YEAR. Not when the unions continue their stranglehold on our state with their ballooning demands for better pension and other retirement benefits than I will ever see working in the private sector. Not until I see the unions (including the all powerful teachers unions) step up and take drastic reductions in their current salaries and their retirement packages.
If I understand the pension system correctly, these state workers and teachers are able to retire at AGE 55 and collect nearly 80 percent of their salaries. These salaries, by the way, are grossly inflated during the last 5 years of their service so they can get higher pensions.
In the meantime, private sector workers have taken drastic cuts in our salaries to keep our jobs. Many have lost them and many more have seen their hours dramatically reduced. Our contributions to our health-care plans (those of us lucky enough to have them) have risen substantially year after year, while seeing our deductibles increase and the levels of services decrease. Our retirement accounts have take the most severe pounding in the past year and a half and to collect anything from Social Security (assuming there will be anything left when we get there) we have to work until we are AGE 67.
So when the drastic cuts that have been threatened by Gov. Quinn are made, do not lay the blame on the taxpayers who are already overburdened. Look to the state and local government unionized workers and unionized teachers who refuse to accept the same cuts and reductions in benefits that your private sector taxpayers have been forced to swallow. Not until they stand up as a collective force to help restore balance to the budget will I even consider accepting the need for any increases in the state income tax, or taxes on services or sales of goods.
Cindy Bandur
Island Lake