State Senator Dan Duffy has sent out the following email to folks who have asked by he voted “No” on the government employee pension bill:

Dan Duffy

Some of you have asked me why I did not support the pension reform bill so I thought I would send out this email.

The media is oversimplifying the reasons why some Republicans voted against the pension reform bill and are not reporting on any of the critical details.

Local papers, especially the Daily Herald, seem to be only printing the high level talking points from Mike Madigan’s office.

They are simply saying that some of us felt the bill, “did not go far enough.”

I thoroughly explained my reasons on the senate floor during debate.

I have voted for every pension reform bill and have fought for substantial pension reforms since the day I took office.  A

s a small business owner for the past 20 years, I evaluate every bill as a business owner and look for common sense logic.

This pension bill, SB01, does not add up.  Here are some of the reasons why I voted against the bill.

1.  This bill was designed, discussed and drafted by Speaker Mike Madigan behind closed doors.  We received the 325 page bill on Monday afternoon (12/2/13) and were forced to vote on it on Tuesday afternoon (12/3/13).  We never had a chance to analyze the bill.  It reminded me of Obamacare.  We were told to, “pass it to see what was in it.”

2.  Of the $92 billion in actual projected savings, 60-70% of that money will not be realized until 2040-2045 IF we keep a balanced budget and “live within our means” until then.  The state has NOT balanced a budget in years and we have not come even close to living within our means.  It will NEVER happen.  Speaker Mike Madigan’s outside source came up with the $92 billion figure and it has never been confirmed by COGFA (Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability) or any other government agency that would be held accountable for the figure.

3.  This bill guarantees pensions will take top priority and be paid first – before all other essential state services.  Since we do not have the money to make these payments, and due to the fact that the legislative leaders will not cut any wasteful spending, that means we will have to increase taxes to adhere to this new law.  The bill gives the majority party a reason, dictated by statute, to raise our taxes again.

4.  Only 10% of the projected savings are allocated to paying down future pension debt and 90% of savings is available to spend on other items.  If the whole point of this bill is to solve our “unfunded pension liability,” shouldn’t those numbers be reversed?  Shouldn’t 90% of savings be allocated towards paying down future pension payments and 10% available for other items?

5.  About $1.2 billion dollars will be available for Governor Quinn to spend as he sees fit.  Why would we give an inept governor over $1 billion dollars to spend at election time?  He will be using this money as his own personal campaign fund.  He will be giving away money we don’t even have and cutting ribbons on a weekly basis.

6.  Governor Quinn will submit his new budget in February.  He will now use these numbers to increase his spending even though we have not received the money yet and it will be tied up in court for the unforeseen future.  This will put us even further in debt.

7.  Legislative leaders said the bill was “very similar” to Madigan’s previous pension reform bill.  If that is the case, why was it re-drafted, what took so long to make all the changes, and why are there at least 100 new pages in the bill?

These are just a few of the questions I had about the bill.  I have a whole list of problems I found with the bill while analyzing it for the brief 24 hours I had before the vote.

It is full of bad language, loopholes and problems that sets us up for tax increases.

This is a bad bill for the state of Illinois and is not how we should reform pensions.

Madigan orchestrated the whole deal and It was passed in typical Madigan fashion.

My job is not to make Mike Madigan’s life easy and follow his direct orders.

My role is to fight for the people of Illinois, ask the tough questions, and not get pressured into supporting critical bills like this until they are fully vetted.

If this bill was good and fully transparent, I would have surely supported it.

I supported past Madigan pension reform bills.

However, this bill was changed to get President Cullerton on board and gave away the store in the process.