State’s broken pension promise is theft

Call the police! I want to charge the Illinois General Assembly with “theft” or perhaps “theft by deception.” When I started teaching at an Illinois community college 42 years ago, the state of Illinois, at the direction of the legislature and the governor, started taking 7 percent and later 8 percent out of my paycheck.

They told me “It’s OK, you won’t get Social Security like other workers will, not even Medicare unless you pay extra for it, but we, the state of Illinois, will contribute a similar amount, as all employers do.”

They lied. For almost 40 years, they skimmed 8 percent off the top of my paycheck, invested it in a program that gave back wonderful returns, but they didn’t put in their share. Now they say that they don’t really owe me the pension we agreed on back in 1970.

Isn’t that theft? Oh, and let’s add a charge of “embezzlement.” Because, over and over, the state has “borrowed” the money that I gave the retirement system, so they wouldn’t have to raise taxes to pay for services we all use.

They’ve never put that money back into the investment pool, of course.

If I did that, we’d call it embezzlement. But when the governor — every governor from Dick Ogilvie to Pat Quinn — and the legislators do it, we call it politics.

Mr. Madigan and Mr. Quinn, put the money back that you borrowed and put in the money that you withheld all those years. Will you have to raise taxes to do that? Sure. But the ultimate obligation for the money that is owed is on the taxpayers of Illinois, all of us, myself included.

We need to own up to our obligation and get the state back on a sound fiscal foundation. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s stop re-electing those same dishonest politicians — the ones who got us into this mess.

Michael J. Corn

Grayslake