ILLINOIS RETIRED TEACHERS ASSOCIATION – YOU ARE PATHETIC
Just received an urgent e.mail from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. It was entitled, “It Is Time To Act”. The e.mail went on to say that the General Assembly may soon be considering legislation that changes the promise for active and retired teachers. The Assembly was expected to vote on the bill the same day that it’s proposed. According to news reports, the Assembly could be acting as soon as tomorrow.
“It is time to act” ? Really ? Oh, why not wait until the legislation is actually proposed ? What’s the hurry? Time to act indeed! No, IRTA, the time to act was many years ago and every year since the Assembly started stealing funds from the Teachers’ Pension Fund. The time to act was when you saw several years ago that certain political groups were targeting teachers and teacher pensions. The time to act was when the reformers, politicians and the press started making teachers scapegoats for the State’s financial difficulties. The time to act was when the Governor, Speaker of the House and the Mayor of Chicago met months ago to plot the attack on teacher pensions. The time to act was a few years ago when we saw public opinion beginning to agree with the plotters that teacher pensions were “lucrative” and out of control.
Sorry, IRTA, the time for action has come and gone. Now it’s time to sit back and ponder just how much more retired teachers are going to be paying for health insurance. How our cost of living increases are going to disappear. How current teachers are going to be asked to retire later and to contribute more towards their pensions.
An e.mail campaign and phone calls to legislators aren’t going to do the trick this time. You lost the public opinion battle a long time ago. The public is hell-bent on attacking those “lucrative” public employee pensions, and the legislators sense this and feel that they now have a mandate for change. They might not even wait until November to act.
IRTA, your call to action is a few years too late. Maybe it’s not too late for me to request my IRTA dues to be refunded. Maybe my refunded dues can help offset some of the costs when my health insurance premiums double and my cost of living increases disappear. I’m sorry to say this, but I’m ashamed to be an IRTA member. You’re pathetic.
I hear your anger and despair that teachers have never been respected enough to have their pensions funded…now that the fat cats are faced with huge deficits they are dumping it on us..those who paid and planned for their future only to have soick politicians piss it away
Lynn Gros
June 19, 2012 at 9:01 pm
The words were “slick politicians” in the post from L Gros
Lynn Gros
June 19, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Great letter! I agree! IRTA is about as effective as a guy standing in a bucket trying to pick it up with the handle! I, for one, am tired of being accused of being the sole reason the state is in financial trouble, all because I trusted (foolish thing to do in the first place) the State of Illinois to provide for my pension after 45 years teaching the children of the state.
As of today (7JAN13) the COLA is history until 2020, and my guess is it will be pushed back even farther when that time rolls around. We are in a hole that we will NEVER climb out of, and the guy from IRTA who came to our town in December, and talked to our retired teachers, only told us to take the COLA and give up the health insurance. What planet was he from?
And now, Speaker Madigan will ask to have his change in funding plan returned to the bill so school districts will be forced to pay for pensions, and that will mean a double hit for us as our property taxes will undoubtedly increase to meet the cost.
Some thanks for 45 years of teaching in Illinois. Please don’t “thank” me any more – I can’t afford it!
By the way, this information came from SUAA, one of the retirement groups affected. They send 2 or 3 e-mails a DAY. I never hear anything from IRTA – NOTHING! Guess what, IRTA? NO DUES FOR YOU!
Randall Lloyd
January 7, 2013 at 10:36 pm
Thanks, Randall. I love your simile about the IRTA and the guy in the bucket. It’s probably going to be months before the General Assembly votes on “pension reform”. More time for the IRTA to do nothing of substance.
alkleen
January 8, 2013 at 7:33 pm
The most pressing problem of our time is the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us. The pension issue is just another bite out of the same sandwich.
What the IEA and IRTA are forgetting to emphasize is this: The lawmakers of the state of Illinois over the past 40 or 50 years have given a fat bonus to all Illinois citizens– they have not taxed them sufficiently to meet their constitutional obligations. Now, depending on when you read it, the citizens of the state have SAVED for themselves about $84 billion or $96 billion by not paying the bill that the Constitution required of them.
Instead of stepping up to their obligation and admitting their failure; they seek to bully and terrify the pensioners into giving up their Constitutionally protected benefits. They seek to welch on their promise and deny their duty.
One is reminded of “treaties” promising the Native Americans ownership of their lands “so long as grass grows or water runs.”
Why not launch a public relations campaign citing the “bonus” that the citizens have received and the need for them to pay some of it back?
Bill Harshbarger
February 7, 2013 at 4:59 am