Towns must pay into pension plans

In the May 31 Daily Herald Fence Post, Mayor Turry of Lincolnwood wrote a cogent, but one-sided opinion on the status of public safety pension reform in Illinois. Please allow me to add a retired firefighter's perspective.

Mayor Turry states that reform failed to pass in Springfield because, "a union-demanded provision" was added to the House bill.

Why are workers' proposals so often labeled demands? Police officers and firefighters can't demand anything from our State legislators or local government officials.

We do however have the same right as Mayor Turry and every other citizen to make our opinions known to our representatives.

The provision that the mayor chose not to explain, and that his coalition cannot abide, would require municipalities to make annual contributions to the public safety pension funds. They already do this for employees in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF). Why wouldn't that policy make sense for police and firefighters? Currently, public safety employees have a legally required percentage of their salary deducted from every paycheck for their pensions. Municipalities are not required to contribute on a regular basis.

If local boards vote to underfund their pension obligations for a year or two, or a decade or two, the deficits we face today accrue. This and other factors were clearly pointed out in the recent series of Daily Herald articles on public pensions.

Pension reform is surely coming to Illinois. With good ideas from all sides of the debate, hopefully our legislators can pass a bill that maintains some retirement security for career employees and cost efficiencies for municipalities.

Mike Burns

Wheeling