Fix pensions with a constitutional law

With all of the well orchestrated calls for “pension reform” echoing around Illinois, I hope the legislature will consider the following: Write a constitutional law. There is no point in wasting money on legal challenges with any law that would get taken to court. Make sure it solves the problem.

Since there is widespread consensus from all informed parties that the root cause of the current “pension crisis” was the result of the state not making its actuarially required contributions over several decades, any legislation that does not address this root cause is not “reform.” If the state had been responsible, there would be no “crisis.” Benefits are not excessive, despite incomplete media reports fixating on a tiny percentage of outliers. Remember, the recent “pension reform” legislation of the past decade has focused on benefit reduction for the people who have always paid their actuarially required bills, while it provided no effective motivation for the state to meet its obligations.

Include in any pension reform legislation a provision that says the actuarially required pension payment from the state should have the same budget priority requirement as bond payments. That would show true reform and a real commitment to truly setting things right. Remember, teachers do not receive Social Security, so a state pension is all that they will have. Those teachers who left private sector careers (or had to work a second job to make ends meet) and as a result paid into Social Security could see less of a Social Security benefit compared to nonteachers who paid the same amount into Social Security.

Legislators: truly fix the problem in a constitutional way, and don’t punish responsible teachers who always paid their obligations.

Thomas Loch

Arlington Heights