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Friday, December 7, 2012

UPDATE: What’s happening in Michigan + The impact of benefit cuts to legislative districts and the state’s economy. « Fred Klonsky

The impact of benefit cuts to legislative districts and the state’s economy. « Fred Klonsky:


Ten minute drawing. Don’t f**k with my COLA!

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The in box. Glen Brown comments on my post: The impact of benefit cuts.

…If legislators can breach contractual obligations through legislation (such as HB 6258), the entire middle class will “pay” the consequences. There will be extensive and devastating economic outcomes for the entire State of Illinois if its public employees are robbed of their earned and constitutionally-guaranteed benefits. The attack on public employees is an attack on the entire middle class.
“[Consider that] retired teachers create a $4.4 billion positive impact for the Illinois economy. The $3.1 billion in pensions and benefits paid to retired teachers and school administrators in Illinois during fiscal year 2012 created a sustained economic stimulus of approximately $4.432 billion that reached all 102 Illinois counties, according to a recent study conducted by the Teachers’ Retirement System. The study’s findings were released… in a new report entitled ‘Economic Impact Study of TRS Benefit Payments by Illinois Legislative District and County.’
“‘It is vital for everyone interested in the future of public pensions in Illinois to understand and 


What’s happening in Michigan.

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The impact of benefit cuts to legislative districts and the state’s economy.

In the latest issue of The Advocate, the publication of the Illinois State University Retirement System (SURS).
It’s a PDF. Scroll down to the chart that shows the benefits received bv SURS members in each state representative and senatorial district.
It totals over $1.2 billion. And that is just for one of the state’s pension systems. It doesn’t include TRS, for example.
There are two important take aways from looking at this chart and the legislative maps that follow it.
Cutting benefits to state public employees will have a huge negative impact on the state’s economy. Not just to


There is no pension benefit crisis.

To paraphrase Nobel winning economist and NY Times columnist in his piece this morning, “Let’s get this straight. Illinois is not facing a pension benefit crisis.”
There is a state funding crisis. The political leaders of this state, both Republicans and Democrats, refuse to address the fact that they can’t pay their bills by taxing the rich at the same rate that they tax the poor.
Taxing the poor is pointless. They have no money. That’s the definition of poor. The working class (what we now