The in box. “No one is grandfathered. No one is protected. Act now.”
From Roger Sanders.
CALL NOW AND DEMAND THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTE NO ON SB 1673
888-412-6570
Today there are 70,000 retired teachers and dependents enrolled in the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program that will lose benefits if this bill passes. They will have to choose between current cost of living benefits at a meager 3% or health insurance. If you choose to keep your health insurance, you must agree to give up your current COLA benefit and accept a reduced COLA of the lesser of 1/2 of the Consumer Price Index or 3%. That means your COLA will be cut in half for the rest of your life IF inflation stays low. If inflation goes higher, you will lose even more. Your COLA will be based upon the salary that was used to calculate your retirement benefit, NOT the retirement annuity you are receiving today. That means losing even more every year. You will lose tens of thousands of dollars in COLA benefits or lose health insurance. You will be forced to decide which poison to take. No one is protected or grandfathered.
If you are an active teacher, you will have to choose between your current COLA benefit and access to the state health insurance at retirement. AND if you keep your current COLA benefit, the salary used to calculate your retirement annuity will be capped.
AND it bars districts from bargaining the impact of any changes made by this law, so you have no redress at the local level to mitigate in any way the loss of benefits.
AND there is no guarantee that the state MUST meet its pension payments.
AND there is no guarantee that health insurance costs will be capped, or that health insurance will even be offered by the state. The State of Illinois could do anything with rates and the health insurance program that it wants to at any time by rewriting the state insurance act. You cannot trust the legislators in Illinois.
THIS BILL IS AN ATTACK ON EVERY RETIREE AND ACTIVE TEACHER.
NO ONE IS GRANDFATHERED. NO ONE IS PROTECTED.
THIS BILL NEGATIVELY AFFECTS ALL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEACHERS, ACTIVE AND RETIRED. PROMISES MADE TO THEM ABOUT RETIREMENT BENEFITS AND HEALTH INSURANCE WILL BE BROKEN.
PROMISES MADE TO RETIRED TEACHERS WILL BE BROKEN.
PLEASE CALL NOW AND DEMAND THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTE NO ON SB 1673
888-412-6570