Arrogance clouds pension debate

Mr. Urbanek's response to Mr. Fuch's very practical plan to fund pensions is a reflection of the selfishness and arrogance of the leadership in our education community. Mr. Urbanek's contention that the $2 billion that TRS paid out in pensions in 2009 created a $4 billion stimulus for our economy is totally irrational.

First, TRS paid out $3.6 billion in 2009 to teachers and administrators, not only $2 billion. Second, I guess Mr. Urbanek assumes that if the Illinois taxpayers who finance these bloated pensions had this money themselves then we would not spend it and not provide the “economic stimulus” like the TRS retirees do.

I had sent a message to Mr. Chris Koch of the Illinois State Board of Education (who then passed it on to Mr. Urbanek) that if the practice of pension spiking had not occurred during the past 10 years we would have saved $1.4 billion in 2009 alone. This would have been more than enough to cover the $773.9 million shortfall that the state owes.

Mr. Urbanek's response was, and I quote: “A general premise of your e-mail is that state government could pay the $773.9 million owed to school districts on June 30, 2010, if teacher pensions were scaled back and school districts stopped rewarding retiring teachers near the end of their careers. You could get the same result if you cut spending on low-income health care, eliminated the Department of Aging and reduced the subsidies for mass transit that allow seniors to ride buses and trains for free. It actually would be much easier legally to reduce spending in these other areas than to cut teacher pensions because under the Illinois Constitution, pensions cannot be reduced.”

I think this says it all.

Ken Hofrichter

Elk Grove Village