Teachers oppose tiered retirement proposal

Gov. Pat Quinn might still have a fight on his hands from public-school teachers in the state, despite backing away earlier this week from a plan to hike teachers' contributions to their pensions.

Quinn announced that he would drop the proposal to increase the contribution by 2 percentage points, but he still favors a two-tiered retirement system that would give new employees reduced benefits. Existing employees would see no change.

Quinn's proposal calls for a number of changes to the state's retirement plans, including raising the age at which teachers could retire with full benefits from 55 (with 35 years of service) to 67. Teachers would earn less in benefits each year, and annual cost-of-living raises for retirees would be tied to the Consumer Price Index, instead of being a flat 3 percent. The proposal, which again applies only to new teachers, is part of Quinn's attempt to close a budget deficit expected to top $11.6 billion in the coming fiscal year.

Dave Comerford, spokesman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said that a tiered system would essentially punish incoming teachers for the state's repeated failure during past decades to fund the Teachers' Retirement System properly.

"We don't see a real good reason for this change," Comerford said. "It would have questionable benefit to the state, and it would discourage more young people from entering the teaching profession in Illinois."

The Illinois Education Association, the state's other big teachers union, also opposes the proposal.

Quinn spokeswoman Katie Ridgway said the proposal, which would apply to all of the pension plans in the state, would save taxpayers as much as $162 billion between now and 2045, when the pensions are supposed to reach a 90-percent funding level.

Ridgway said the governor agrees that chronic underfunding of TRS has contributed to the state's current liability, but believes the proposal to be a fair long-term solution.

"The pensions right now are unaffordable," she said. "This is a time for shared sacrifice."

The Teacher Retirement System applies to all public-school teachers and administrators in Illinois except for those who work in Chicago Public Schools. Funding comes from four sources: investment income, teacher contributions, employer (school district) contributions and state contributions. Existing teachers, who do not receive Social Security, pay 9.4 percent of their salaries into the system.