May missed chance on pension reform

The recent news of Highland Park's pension scandal only confirms my belief that Karen May, Gov. Quinn and their allies have no vested interest in sincerely reforming Illinois' finances.

It seems like every time we hear Quinn insist that we need a 33 percent income tax increase, we find out that another public official has received an absurdly lucrative pension.

Karen May should not be re-elected because she has stood silent while the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund has been chronically underfunded. Joshua Raugh of Northwestern University's Kellogg School projects that Illinois' pension funds could run out of money in eight years. The law firm Sidley & Austin opined that the state of Illinois is not a guarantor of those pension obligations to their retirees. With no money and no guarantor, the retirees will have nothing left.

Whether you're a public employee or a private citizen, the legislature's gross mismanagement of the public pension system borders on the criminal. Currently, the underfunded amount is $130 billion. There is not enough income from the fund to pay current fiscal expenses of $10 billion annually. That is why Karen May, Quinn and their facilitators had to borrow $3.47 billion in the last fiscal year, and are projecting the need for another $5 billion loan this fiscal year.

Karen May sits on the Illinois House of Representatives Personnel and Pensions Committee, which is presumably responsible for oversight of the Illinois public pension system, including the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. Karen May and the other members of the Personnel and Pensions Committee have breached the public trust by underfunding our public pension system and then insisting that the taxpayers accept the financial burdens caused by their mismanagement.

Karen May's response to the pension scandals have been extremely disingenuous. She has only paid superficial lip service to fixing pensions in the past week. She has had a say in Illinois' pension funds for long enough. It was easier to reward political allies and keep silent than to make sincere reforms until election season rolled around.

Robert S. Reda

Lake Forest