House May Vote on Pension-Cutting Legislation

7/26/2012

The IFT and our partners in the We Are One Illinois coalition were informed by Speaker Madigan on Wednesday, July 25 that the Illinois House will convene August 17 and may vote on pension-cutting HB 1447. The bill would potentially slash the hard-earned benefits of public employees and retirees in the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and General Assembly Retirement System (GARS).

The bill passed the Senate on May 31 but was not called in the House. A three-fifths vote (71 votes) in the House will now be required to move the bill to the governor’s desk.  

Representatives from the coalition, including IFT President Dan Montgomery, testified in vehement opposition to the bill in May. Montgomery called the legislation unconstitutional and said it "creates a coercive dilemma in which public employees must choose between harm on one hand or more harm on the other."

If passed, HB 1447 would:

• Force active employees who do not agree to a reduced Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to lose access to retiree health insurance AND cap their salary at its current amount for the purpose of calculating the pension.

• Force current retirees to choose between their current COLA benefit OR their health insurance. Under this plan, the future COLA would not be compounded and would be reduced to 3 percent or one-half the urban Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is less. The IFT and the coalition believe this is a clear reduction of a constitutionally-protected benefit.

The coalition issued a statement on July 25 about the possible vote and reiterated the group’s willingness to working with lawmakers to find a fair solution to the pension crisis that does not punish the workers and retirees who have never missed a payment and are dependent on these pensions for their retirement security.

IFT members should watch their inboxes and check the union's Web site regularly in the days ahead to learn how and when to act to stop this devastating legislation.