4
Pension reform, cost shift still in limbo
The Illinois General Assembly
concluded its session May 31 without
taking comprehensive action on
pension reform, meaning that issue
will continue to percolate as we head
into the
nd into
2014, which of course also is a
gubernatorial election year.
Also left for possible future action is
the issue of a cost shift for local
school districts as at this time there does not appear
to be enough legislative support to force the cost shift
onto local school districts or their taxpayers. The
underlying reasons go to the fundamentals of the
issue as well as the combined efforts of the Illinois
School Management Alliance partners.
House Speaker Michael Madigan has said he
remains intent on passing the state’s normal pension
costs to local school districts, similar to a Higher Ed
bill,
which narrowly passed the
House but fell
seven votes shy
in the Senate.
That
legislation would
have moved the
state’s pension
costs
to
universities and
community
colleges at a rate
of ½ percent a
year, estimated
to be in the range
of $18 million
beginning
in
FY15
and
continuing
to
increase by a
similar amount each year until the normal pension
costs are completely the responsibility of the higher
education schools in the state.
The FY 14 budget for PreK-12 public education
ended up being essentially the same as for FY13,
with level funding for General State Aid,
Transportation, Early Childhood and Bilingual
Education. While that ended up being much better
than the drastic cuts to GSA and Transportation
proposed by Governor Pat Quinn, the fact remains
that GSA still is being prorated at 89 percent and
Transportation at 64 percent. The main part of the
education budget bill is in
The hope is that
the governor will sign the budget bill as it has been
sent to him by the General Assembly.
Based on some of the debate surrounding the
education budget, we wouldn’t be surprised to see
efforts next year to change the way in which public
schools are funded.
sponsored by Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill)
creates an advisory committee to review the current
funding-distribution methods for public education in
Illinois and make recommendations for a more fair
and adequate funding system by Feb. 1, 2014.
The pension reform situation is no clearer now
than it was going into the session, except perhaps for
the fact that Senate President John Cullerton and
most of his caucus stood their ground against
on the basis that it was unfair and unconstitutional.
Of course, the lobbying efforts of the We Are One
Illinois labor coalition that supported Cullerton’s
were critical to holding off the most
draconian of the pension reform plans as SB 1 would
have unilaterally
raised
the
retirement age,
capped
pensionable
salaries
and
drastically
reduced
the
pension COLAs
of
employees
and retirees.
Similarly,
the
efforts of IASA
member
superintendents
and
administrators
had an impact
when it came to
getting the education budget back to at least the
FY13 levels. Thanks to those of you who contacted
your legislators and even made trips to Springfield to
meet with lawmakers. Your voices were heard.
Your voices also will be important going forward
because the legislative outlook for the rest of this
year and the 2014 election year looks every bit as
stormy as what we just survived. The budget, the
cost shift, pension reform and unfunded mandates
will continue to be the main battlegrounds as we fight
for top-quality educational opportunities for children
in Illinois.
Diane Hendren,
Chief of Staff /
Director of
Governmental
Relations
