David McSweeney
Resolutions don’t have the force of law, but they are a way of gauging support for an idea or position.
Now, McSweeney has convinced a majority of House members to co-sponsor his House Resolution 27.
That means lots of Republicans and a good number of Democrats have signed on. Their names, as of 10 AM March 1st, follow:
House Sponsors
Rep. David McSweeney – Sam Yingling – Jerry Costello, II – Jay Hoffman – Mary E. Flowers, Norine K. Hammond, Allen Skillicorn, Bill Mitchell, Linda Chapa LaVia, Cynthia Soto, Stephanie A. Kifowit, Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, Katie Stuart, Terri Bryant, LaToya Greenwood, Sue Scherer, Deb Conroy, David B. Reis, Natalie A. Manley, John Cavaletto, C.D. Davidsmeyer, Charles Meier, Randy E. Frese, Michael Halpin, John Connor, Emanuel Chris Welch, Anna Moeller, Tony McCombie, Will Guzzardi, Litesa E. Wallace, Peter Breen, Carol Ammons, Monica Bristow, Natalie Phelps Finnie, Kelly M. Burke, John M. Cabello, Daniel Swanson, Christine Winger, Luis Arroyo, Camille Y. Lilly, Mark Batinick, Jehan Gordon-Booth, Nick Sauer, Chad Hays, Lawrence Walsh, Jr., Steven A. Andersson, Thaddeus Jones, Barbara Wheeler, Jonathan Carroll, Steven Reick, David A. Welter, Joe Sosnowski, Dave Severin, Keith R. Wheeler, Lindsay Parkhurst, Brad Halbrook, Rita Mayfield, Arthur Turner, Marcus C. Evans, Jr., Nicholas K Smith, David S. Olsen, Martin J. Moylan and Keith P. Sommer
That’s three more than when Capitol Fax ran an article on the development yesterday afternoon.
This is evidence of the herd instinct in the General Assembly.
When somehting looks inevitable, those who don’t feel strongly about the subject jump on board.
The only resolution of this issue is to declare the underfunded pension plans insolvent and force them to be rewritten. By a Federal Bankruptcy Court.
It is the height of stupidity to tax future taxpayers for lousy prior government services which the Unions did not insist to be funded as the liabilities were incurred.
They took their money upfront, and kicked the responsibility to the future.
I sincerely hope our children and grandchildren are not as stupid as we were.
Where’s Barb-wa Salvi Wheeler?
Asleep at the switch, once again!
McSweeney got played by the IEA:
https://capitolfax.com/2018/03/01/iea-says-it-helped-mcsweeney-kill-rauners-pension-tax-shift/
Key quote: “McSweeney approached the IEA for help in talking to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to build support for his measure because of IEA’s history of bipartisanship.”
McSweeney’s playing checkers and the IEA and the democrats that signed on to this measure are playing chess.
“Ask not what a teacher can do for you, ask what you can do for a teacher and all teachers” – a quote attributed to no other than our sunshine blogger (additional research pending) Stay tuned…tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meow…
It’s going too be really interesting when the pension funds reach the verge of insolvency.
Any politicians who try to pass tax increases large enough to really fix the problem will be tarred and feathered.
The Illinois Supreme Court can try to order the General Assembly to come up with more money, but they have no way to enforce such an order, and they don’t have the power to levy or raise taxes on their own.
We very well might see a repeat of the Arkansas default of 1933, on a much larger scale.
Barb Wheeler is listed.
Re: “The only resolution of this issue is to declare the underfunded pension plans insolvent ”
imo Two things need to happen: Change the Constitution to eliminate the Public Pension GUARANTEE and reduce spending on social programs the taxpayers do not want to support to permit funding of the pensions.
If these two items are not addressed, the Courts will force the State or local school boards or both to increase your taxes. The plans will not be allowed to go insolvent as long as the Constitutions stands the way it is.
A court has already forced a municipality to increase their taxes to fund fire and police pensions.
The Courts might be able to force the cities, counties and school boards to pay, but they would have a far more difficult time forcing the General Assembly to raise taxes.
SECTION 12. LEGISLATIVE IMMUNITY
Except in cases of treason, felony or breach of peace, a member shall be privileged from arrest going to, during, and returning from sessions of the General Assembly. A member shall not be held to answer before any other tribunal for any speech or debate, written or oral, in either house. These immunities shall apply to committee and legislative commission proceedings.
(Source: Illinois Constitution.)
The General Assembly also possesses the big hammer of impeachment if things ever get that crazy.
This provision did not stop this legislature from getting a ticket in Grundy County.
Had to drive down again for the court date.
Great time to eliminate teacher pensions. Let them setup their own 401 plans.
Only about 4 percent of workers in the private sector are covered by a pension plan. It is well past time to eliminate pensions in the public sector in Illinois and put these workers on social security and 401 plans.
According to WIKI about the Illinois Constitution:
“Article XIV requires that Illinois voters be asked at least every 20 years if they desire a constitutional convention. In 1988 the measure failed 900,109 votes for and 2,727,144 against the measure. 1,069,939 other voters chose neither option.
In 2008, there was an effort by citizens to support a convention. Ultimately, the measure was also defeated by a wide margin, 1,493,203 votes for and 3,062,724 against from a total of 5,539,172 votes cast. 983,245 voters chose neither option.”
There is no question that if some citizens manage to get an election set up on the question of doing a Constitutional Convention that the public sector unions, teacher unions would combine with the mostly left wing media in Crook County and elsewhere to convince the sheepile and low information among us to vote NO.