Karen McConnauhay
A press release from State Senate candidate Karen McConnaughay:
Karen McConnaughay announces support for reform of state pension system
Will support SB 512 to create choices for state workers and reduce taxpayer costs;
Will forgo legislator pension
St. Charles,IL–State Senate candidate Karen McConnaughay today announced her support for the creation of a tiered state pension system that will move employees to a defined contribution system and away from the unsustainable defined benefit plan that has left the state with an unfunded liability of over $80 billion dollars.
“I have great respect for the men and women in public service, and the worst thing we can do is to prop up an unsustainable pension system that will eventually drag down the state’s finances and force radical reductions in benefits,” said McConnaughay.
“Moving to the type of retirement plan that the vast majority of Illinois workers have is not just common sense, it is the fair and responsible thing to do,” she added.
McConnaughay, currently Chairman of the Kane County Board, announced that she will support SB 512 which will establish three options for current state employees.
Those employees will retain current benefit guarantees for the years they have worked, but, going forward, will either increase their contributions to maintain the current benefit guarantee, maintain current contributions and have future benefits reduced, or move to a 401(k)-type retirement savings plan that will include a state contribution.
The legislation also calls for a scheduled pay off of the current unfunded liability for state pensions.
“I applaud the work of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club which has been relentless in its promotion of meaningful pension reform,” said McConnaughay.
“I believe they have focused attention on this issue that has been swept under the rug for too long.”
The Civic Committee’s “Illinois is Broke” campaign has promoted restructuring state government pensions through grassroots advocacy and education across the state (www.illnoisisbroke.com)
As part of her support for state pension reform, McConnaughay also announced that she will not participate in the General Assembly Retirement System while she serves in the Senate.
“I currently save for my retirement through the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), and will continue to do so,” she said.
“I will not seek eligibility in another public pension system to feather my nest while asking state workers to sacrifice along with other working families. In fact, because of the reduction in compensation between the County Board chairmanship and the legislature, I will be ultimately reducing the pension I will receive.”
McConnaughay is seeking the Republican nomination for the state senate in District 33 which includes northeast Kane and southeast McHenry Counties.
Well Ms. McConnaughay took months of political pressure to do the right thing.
Something that her opponent did from the day one.
In the last election McConnaughay promised not to take a raise.
That worked for a short time until she appointed her OWN panel to declare she was worthy of one.
The taxpayers should thank Cliff Surges’ campaign for forcing McConnaughay’s hand.
Now maybe he can urge her to return over a million dollars in Kane County contract holders donations that pay for $ 5,000 per month staff members & those that receive co. contracts.
Congrats to Cliff Surges for managing to put enough pressure on the establishment to save strapped taxpayers money.
And if the reform does not pass will this announcement be meaningless?
Should the headline read?
‘Karen McConnaughay Gives In to Political Pressure And Calls for Reform on the 206th Day of Her Campaign Rejecting Her 2nd Pension’
It’s a little long but accurate.
she is evil, 3 husbands wow
Catfish: Does that mean you were a Mitt Romney supporter from .Day One and disavowed Gingrich from the start?
She is a quality individual and will be far better than her opponent in the job.
Hopefully my position is clear enough for those who didn’t otherwise understand my past blogs of hatred.
The issue is not the repetitive state of her marriages.
The issue is giving extremely high staff raises which boost pensions for favored staff at the expense of over a thousand others.
McConnaughay has yet to pledge to complete a full four year term.
Would she be using the good faith of 33rd District voters, to elect her and then move on? Are they perhaps considering a part time Senator in campaign mode?
What may be her arrangements with other elected officials?
The fear is that the political establishment will choose the Senator pushing outside $ into the campaign.
If the MC Henry Blog and the Northwest Herald can’t get solid pledge they should assume that this choice for Senator is part time.
I have experience with Kane county.
I would not vote for her.
Very sharp and articulate.
Will tell you exactly what you want to hear but not sincere.
she’bad evil person just out for her self , trust me. Cliff has my vote
Wow, if being married more than once makes a person evil, we have millions of evil people in this nation. Interesting criteria.
If you don’t understand anything else that is going on I guess that is something to cling to.
The fact that she has reduced the county head count and saved Kane County a lot of money is somehow overlooked.
She can streamline, make everything transparent, reduce costs of insurance plans to tax payers, promise not to double dip, but none of that means anything because she didn’t do enough or do it soon enough for some?
I can see this is well thought out by everyone.
McConnaughay has a good record.
And the fact is, she has A RECORD of success, versus her opponent, who has nothing to stand on at all.