Don’t stick suburbs with pension mess

Don’t stick suburbs with pension mess

Mike Madigan’s plan to dump the pension mess he helped create onto local school districts will inevitably lead to higher taxes rates for suburban property owners — or budgetary cuts for our schools.

On the one hand, he wants us to fund a bailout for a Springfield-created problem and on the other hand trust Springfield to continue to make pension decisions. This is letting the fox guard the henhouse. As a taxpayer with three children enrolled in Naperville Unit District 203’s schools, this is unacceptable.

Illinois’ Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) is seeking nearly $3.5 billion from the state for its portion of the pension costs for fiscal year 2014, roughly $500 million more than TRS system sought from the state for the previous fiscal year.

Madigan’s so called “pension reform” will lead to millions of dollars in tax increases to suburban and downstate homeowners. This is unreasonable, unworkable and unfair.

We need a solution that protects our educators and our taxpayers — and does not allow Springfield to pawn its problems off on suburban taxpayers so there is more money to waste.

David J. Fish

Naperville