Who cares about Illinois’ pension mess? We’d better.
It's tough to get average Joes and Susans interested in the state's $80 billion in unpaid pensions. People are too busy working, feeding their kids, and paying their bills to pay too much attention. But it's urgent that we focus this week on the financial obligations our state lawmakers are making on our behalf with our hard-earned, tightly-stretched incomes.
The fact is, ultimately, unpaid pensions don't really hurt lawmakers or even state employees as much as they hurt taxpayers.
This YouTube below was released earlier this month, but we just found it. Produced by Illinois Policy Institute, its important message has tragically been lost to teachers' union ads filling the air waves, yanking the bleeding hearts of listeners not in tune and fully informed about Springfield issues. This ad is exactly what needs to get more exposure because it touches more than just conservatives' heads - it sends a message to average hearts. Something sorely missing in Springfield's current pension discussion.
While Illinois lawmakers made promises to their union campaign workers what the state would pay into their pensions, those same legislators ignored their obligations decade after decade while they used those promised funds to buy more tax-dependent constituents. Those dollars - taken from the wages of hard-working Illinoisans -- ultimately bought lawmakers more votes and more political clout. And today many of those same people continue to wield control over us all.
And who suffered the most? Not the unions - they got more taxpayer-funded jobs. Not the lawmakers - they got their jobs, their votes and their political clout. All along, taxpayers took the hit - the first time by paying taxes that were supposed to go to union pension funds. Now the taxpayers of Illinois will get hit a second time - paying the pension funds that weren't paid as promised the first time.
What will it take to make Illinois taxpayers angry enough to demand state government revolution and accountability? Are we so demoralized and desensitized that we will hang our heads and pay again and again, all the while shrugging away politicians' deceptive corruption and continue to let power-mad lawmakers abuse us?
Please take a moment and listen to this message below. It may cause your eyes to glaze over to think about pension reform, but it is crucial that you engage in this discussion. Yours, your children's and your grandchildren's future in Illinois are at stake.
Share this video and get the word out. Today, before it's too late.
Read the Full Story: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/bYHz/~3/2cmu6cJGO8A/who-cares-about-illinois-pension-mess-wed-better.html
Taxpayers got the benefit of the funds that were not paid into the pensions that were supposed to be.
Tax payers got the benfit in more school teachers for the local schools, in construction funds for local communities, in state funding for a multitude of state and local programs that benefited many people.
Conservative means honoring your obligations, and upholding the Constitution rather this adding words such as “accrued” where they are not in your interpretation.
The state does need to cut spending and balance their finances, but it should not do so on the back of working people and taxpayers, including those who work for the state.
IPI and perhaps yourself have a biased view, neither projects a true Conservative view of honesty, integrity, and honor.
Hey mema-
Fairness is a concept you are probably familiar with. Is it fair for private sector workers to fund your early retirement while their own “non-constitutionally” guaranteed social security starts many years later, is not nearly as generous and will most likely face future cuts?
Do you care? Does it bother you that the deals you made with vote hungry politicians to give away the store to you and other members of the ruling class will only have to be paid off after those politicians have exited with their own fat pensions? Who will end up paying? Who cares right? Let me tell you who will pay. Kids who are too young to understand your rotten deals and would not be a party to them if they did understand. Those are the people who you are placing the burden on. But who really cares as long as you are a taker and not a payer right?
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