Pension Reform Would Mean District 200 Staff, Program Cuts, Bigger Classes
Proposed pension reform plan would require local school districts to eventually fund all employee pensions.
Illinois legislators Wednesday presented a plan to reduce $95 billion in pension liabilities that would require teachers to pay more toward their retirement benefits and shift the responsibility of public employee pension costs from the state to local school districts.
Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) Wednesday presented the bill she and Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) co-authored, using pieces of previous reform proposals and some new ideas.
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Under the new plan, employees would be required to contribute one percent more toward their pensions during the first year of the legislation and two percent in following years.
School districts would assume employer costs for the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) and all other pensions at a rate of .5 percent per year, according to a press release from the Illinois General Assembly.
Cost-of-living pension increases would apply to the first $25,000 of an employee's pension, new hires would be placed on a cash balance plan combining defined contribution and benefit plans and the retirement age would increase one, three and five years for employees 40-45, 35-39 and 34 and younger, respectively.
District 200 Superintendent Dr. Brian Harris said with 1,100 certified employees, the district's annual cost for pension obligations is $8 million. At an annual rate of .5 percent, the district would have to pay $500,000 toward pensions the first year the legislation goes into effect. The figure would increase every year until the district is the only partly funding pensions.
To cover the cost, he said the district will have to decide on cuts to staff or programming or ask taxpayers to increase the district's operating rate.
"What is $500,000 (to the district)? It's 10 teachers. It's a program—whatever the program may be. It's class size—raising class sizes," he said at a Nov. 28 board meeting.
The "compounding, cumulative" onus the district would assume with the reform would leave the board with no choice but to ask taxpayers for an operating increase, which they haven't done since 1987, he said.
"Unless we come up with another revenue stream—which would be another tax increase—we'd have to go to taxpayers if they want to maintain the status quo."
"We're going to have to. We're not going to have a choice."
We Are One Illinois, a labor coalition focused on protecting public employee pensions, issued a statement Wednesday that the coalition was not consulted in the development of the proposed plan.
"The pension debt was caused by the state's failure to make actuarially adequate pension contributions, not by public employees," the statement read.
Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford said in a statement the proposal could "spur serious discussions" on pension reform that need to happen immediately.
The current Legislature's term ends Jan. 9.
In This article
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Community Unit School District 200, Administration and School Services Center
130 W Park Ave, Wheaton, IL
Matt A.
7:42 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Here is a great idea--Lets just pass on our years of fiduciary neglect to the school districts and then they can tax their constituents. No wonder why Illinois is the ranked as the 3rd worst managed state in the union. Looks like they are striving for the #1 spot. And these people keep getting voted into office.
Mom From Illinois
8:10 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
This isn't pension reform;it's pension cost shifting. Having the employees contribute more is realistic. Having teacher's salaries in the last three years of working go automatically up by 6% is not realistic.
Local teacher
3:16 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Teacher salaries no longer go up 6 percent in their last 3 years, and District 200 teachers have had a pay and step freeze for the last several years
JanS
9:36 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Thank you "Local teacher" I am so glad to hear that our local teachers are part of the solution.
Jim McMahon
8:32 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
My sons kindergarten teacher earned $110,000 a year and retired with 75% of her pay (80k) for the rest of her life. I'll give up my 401k match and stop paying SS taxes to be on that program all day long.
JanS
7:52 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
You have it. The reason the pensions are underfunded is teachers are paid well, pensions are too high, and pension funds have not grown as well as predicted. We should reconsider how teacher salaries are set - automatic raises for the first few years, then merit only. No COLA until pension funds are solvent. Educated teachers, especially math teachers, should have known that end of career salary spiking (like overloading the plate at a family buffet) results in not having enough for those who follow. The taxpayer never agreed to pay what ever it takes, and we simply do not have the money. Taxes, the cost of education and salaries for educators have all been going up faster than inflation. Time for a reset.
ag
10:13 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
This debate extends beyond the teachers, whose unions have done them extremely well over the years. This debate extends to those working in less generous positions whose pay is a very far cry form the 110k Jim mentions.
District 200 and others have no regard for picking up any tab because the responsibility resides with the State of Illinois. This makes bumping up someones pay at the end of their careers in order pad ones pension payout pretty easy.
Next time Dis 200 comes crying about all these funding issues take a moment to remind them of thier thought process when it came time to negotiating former Superintendent Catalini contract which taxpayers are still paying for.
Tom
7:27 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wisconsin teacher pension is 100% funded. They rank#1 in the nation in terms of liability funding. Illinois teacher pension is 45% funded. We rank #50 in the nation. This is one sorry state.
Wrinks
11:41 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Time for everyone to get off pensions, start saving and paying taxes like everyone else has to.
It's an old way of doing things that can't be sustained in todays world.
Rambo
5:21 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012
The kindergarten teacher making 110k for the last ten years made 25-45 in the first 15-20. Guess what, legislators forget that the only reason they are where they are is because they had teachers who prepared them for life and influenced them to continue their education.
Fedup
5:30 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012
If you are talking about the same teacher I am thinking of (at Whittier), I agree she is worth the 110k.
JanS
10:52 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Legislators - who learned math from teachers - never really learned the power of compounding. In times with no COLA and high inflation, those on a fixed income fall way behind. However, having a fixed COLA with no or very little inflation and they get way ahead. It has been 25 years since most private companies gave across the board raises. 3% compounded over 25 years doubles the payment. The problem is that in the public sector, raises and pension COLA were not tied to performance or inflation.
SC
10:41 am on Monday, December 10, 2012
I would assume that when the pension burden is shifted to the local school districts and our state no longer has the pension burden, then our state income tax rate will go down.
Yeah, like that is going to happen.