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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY « Teachers Fight Back

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY « Teachers Fight Back:


GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY

The director of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System is now saying that without additional revenues, the pension system will be insolvent in as little as 17 years. He warned that pension benefits promised to teachers, starting with those ALREADY RETIRED, may need to be cut.
I’m sure this statement will now embolden Illinois legislators to find a way to circumvent the State Constitution and enact punishing pension reforms that will cut into the pensions of current retirees and make working teachers pay much more into their retirement system.
I must issue a warning to any Illinois state legislators who are contemplating cutting pension benefits to ALREADY RETIRED teachers. Do you remember what happened at the capitol in Wisconsin last year? The protests, the occupying of the capitol building, the breaking of windows, the thousands of demonstrators and  the organizing of the current recall election ? That was “child’s play” compared to what is going to happen in Springfield if you even think about cutting the pension of already retired teachers.
You would be messing with the wrong group of seniors. We may be old and gray, but we are the generation who