Lombard voters urge General Assembly to act on Public Safety Pension Reform to relieve taxpayers

LOMBARD, Illinois -- Lombard voters expressed overwhelming support in Tuesday's election for immediate, meaningful public safety pension reform.

More than 83 percent of voters in Lombard responded “Yes” to an advisory referendum asking constituents if the General Assembly and Governor should enact meaningful pension reform to protect taxpayers from the burden of police and fire pension costs.

A sizeable majority of voters in the 45 communities in which the referendum appeared on election ballots voted in favor of immediate public safety pension reforms. This referendum follows the passage last March of similar pension reforms for all other public employees.

“Skyrocketing police and fire pension obligations passed down by the state are crippling our communities,” said David Hulseberg, Lombard Village Manager. “Our taxpayers can no longer foot this bill, especially at a time when many don't even have money to put into their own retirement funds. We want to provide our firefighters and police officers with reliable and secure retirements, but let's start to be reasonable about it. Unless we reform the system to curb escalating pension costs, our municipalities are going to go broke.”

As it currently stands, the pension payout structure for public safety employees in the Village of Lombard is unsustainable. More than 47 percent of the local property taxes collected by the Village of Lombard goes toward public safety pension costs. Public safety employees can retire as early as age 50 after 30 years of service, with a pension of 75 percent of their final pay rate despite only contributing one-third of the cost of their pension.

The Pension Fairness for Illinois Communities Coalition is calling on lawmakers to make police and fire pension reform a top legislative priority in the November veto session. The Coalition, which represents more than 200 communities, including Lombard, was established as a statewide effort to develop a lasting solution to the pension crisis that protects Illinois taxpayers and communities, while ensuring sustainable retirement benefits for public safety employees.

For more information, please visit: www.pensionfairness.org