No more delays in pension reform

A college education can be a key to a better life. This was a central concept of the 1862 federal legislation, signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, which established modern-day state public universities. But to many in our community, the dream of higher education for their children is in jeopardy.

The cost of tuition at public universities is rising, as the University of Illinois will be raising its in-state tuition from $11,104 to $11,636 a year- an increase of 4.8 percent.

The most troubling aspect of this tuition increase is that for fiscal year 2012, the state will be increasing funding for public universities by 12 percent. However, if you examine this 12 percent increase, as did a recent study by Illinois State University, you will find that all of this additional funding is going to the university employee pension system. In fact, state funding for university operations (infrastructure, instruction, and materials) will actually decline by 0.75 percent from fiscal year 2011 through fiscal year 2012, and is budgeted to remain flat or decline through 2016.

This is the real impact of Illinois’ out of control pension system on everyday working families. Springfield is mortgaging our children’s future in order to pay unsustainable promises to politically influential public employee unions. The unwillingness of Democratic lawmakers to save our state’s financial future at the expense of angering public employee unions has resulted in a disproportionately high tax increase on Illinois’ working families and made the possibility of improving their economic circumstances through education less attainable.

It is time for real pension reform and real change in Springfield. If we delay changes to the pension system any longer, like our Democratic governor and General Assembly would do, we risk endangering, not only our state’s future, but our children’s too.

Peter Hurtado

Plainfield