The IEA wants a yes vote from Fra

Rauner made sure he would not have to deal with the HUGE advertising budget that the Teacher’s unions have by signing the education budget.

As a consequence they will be funneling that money to politicians they can buy.

Wrong on the ERO comment above.

You oversimplified the formula, and left out the teacher contribution, as well.

A very low percentage of teachers take ERO.

The ERO comment above is correct.

School districts contribute twice the rate as employees.

The employees are the teachers and administrators.

The percentage of retiring teachers and administrators in any given year, in any given school district, varies.

The claim that not many participate in the program is said for what reason.

Plenty of teachers and administrators participate in ERO systemwide in TRS in any given year.

ERO was one of the many benefit hikes to the TRS pension fund.

Unlike almost all of the other benefit hikes, ERO has to be renewed every few years by the Illinois General Assembly (State Reps and State Senators).

If it is not renewed, it sunsets (ends).

During the last renewal 2 years ago it was found the program was not contributing enough to cover the hiked pension benefits, so the contribution percentages were increased.

The uncovered portion just got dumped on state taxpayers in the form of the unfunded liability of the TRS pension fund, which is a state liability.

The unfunded TRS pension liability is the single largest financial problem in absolute dollars in the state of Illinois.

Full retirement for teachers and administrators is already, thanks to other legislative benefit hikes to the TRS pension fund, at 35 years of service.

35 years of service, thanks to more legislative benefit hikes to the TRS pension fund, includes exchanging up to two years (340 days) of unused sick leave for two years of service credit.

Years of service is thus different than years worked.

The Republicans and Democrats both voted for legislative benefit hikes to the TRS pension fund, a pension fund which has never been 100% funded.

If retirement security was what the teachers and administrators wanted they should have used their enormous pilitical clout to lobby to first fully fund the TRS pension fund, then if it was affordable, to hike pensions.

That is not what haopened.

Now after receiving all sorts of benefit hikes, which has happened in all the Illinois public sector pension funds, the employees want their pensions paid in full.

That is impossible in its entirety, as their are 19 pension funds in the Illinois pension code, with 2 of those funds, downstate police and downstate fire, accounting for about 650 actual funds because downstate (outside Chicago) police and fire pensions are administered locally not as one giant pooled fund (IMRF for example is administered as one giant pooled fund).

The State Reps and Senators and Governors from 1971 to current wrecked the Illinois public sector pension systems with all the legislative benefit hikes to underfunded pensions.

The hikes that were done while pensions were underfunded were not done in good faith.

That is why hikes for Tier I should be scaled back, and the only way to do that, is to repeal in its entitety, via voter approved state constitutional amendment, the pension sentence added to the Illinois state constitution on December 15, 1970, which states that retirement benefits are contractual and cannot be diminished or impaired.

That sentence was supposedly added because Illinois public sector pensions were underfunded at that time.

The result has not been better funded pensions.

The result has been hiked pension benefits.

The sentence is a complete failure to taxpayers and has served to hike public sector pay and benefits at the expense of the private sector and Federal.

Underfunding pensions helps hike pay because some of the money which wold have gone to funding pensions, instead goes to hiking pay, which further hike pensions.

To hike pensions, hike pay and / or hike pension benefits.

Illinois Democrats and Republicans did both and the worst part is the unfunded pension liability because it is money that should be in the pension fund right now but is not.

Since the money is not in the pension fund, the pension fund cannot achieve its desired investment return (there is no return on the unfunded liability portion because that portion is not in the pension fund).

The investment retun is designed to be the single largest contributor to the pension fund, no the employer contribution or employee contribution.

In the TRS pension fund, the state contribution is made on behalf of the employer.

So when the TRS supporters say the employee did everything they were asked, but the state did not, that is technically true but omitting key facts.

Why did the teacher union lobbyists lobby politicians for legislative benefit hikes to an underfunded pension fund, while pensions were already underfunded, instead of first lobbying for fully funded pebsions, is a good return question for teachers.

The administrators do not have a union but they do have a lobbyist as part of tge management alliance which is a consotium of associatons including principals and school boards and business officials.

And Superintendents are typically very involved in some way be it community or politically behind the scenes, and typically regarded as experts to lead the schools by parents, yet the Superintendents have not explained the above to taxpayers either.

All the money going to schools is not being spent wisely for the above reasons, with the worst offenders being the more property tax rich districts, which in some cases in the state are blue collar communities with a big commercial, industrial, or retail base.

So the above is mostly about pensions.

We could write several books, no kidding, about all the games in Illinois pensions over the last 45 years.

In fact Bill Zettler wrote one such book.

Add current salaries.

Add current benefits.

Add retiree healthcare.

Add bonds.

That would be enough material for an encyclopedia set, no joke.

So add that so called very low percentage of teachers participate in ERO and add that the encyclopexia set.

In fact that is exactly how most of tge hikes get past, by claiming it has no appreciable impact, very low impact, low impact, only cost this much, etc.

The saddest part is those worst hit will likely be those the teachers are supposedly educating.

Instead of figuring out how to obtain the money to fund all this current and IOU spending and obligations in a sustainable fashion, it has been a money and benefit grab by slicksters and hustlers.