WBEZ | pension

'Squeezy' pension video viewed 20,000 times

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:33:00 -0600

Officials say Gov. Pat Quinn's online pension reform campaign with its cartoon snake mascot has attracted more than 28,000 unique visitors.

He launched the website this month, billing it as a way to rally the public around a pension overhaul since lawmakers haven't come up with a plan.

The site has been criticized for its lighthearted approach, including images of the orange serpent, "Squeezy the Pension Python." The Democrat's office says a video with the cartoon has been viewed 20,000 times.

The campaign involves Facebook and Twitter pages.

On Tuesday, Quinn unveiled a video with educator Salman Khan. He runs a nonprofit academy and has developed thousands of online tutorials.

Illinois has the nation's worst pension problem with a more than $85 billion funding gap.

Illinois governor wants pension reform by Jan. 9

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:57:00 -0600

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he's looking forward to accomplishing pension reform by Jan. 9 with bipartisan cooperation and before a new Legislature is sworn in.

The governor spoke to reporters Friday in Chicago after launching a new statewide public-private partnership to improve services for veterans.

Quinn says an overhaul of the state's employee retirement system is needed so there will be adequate resources for schools, public safety and veterans' programs.

He says Tuesday's election results show that voters across the country want to see Democrats and Republicans work together.

Democrats won larger majorities in the Legislature in Tuesday's election, giving them veto-proof majorities in both the House and the Senate. That could reduce the governor's role in negotiations. Quinn says he's not concerned about that.

Kirk releases first video on policy since his stroke

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:21:00 -0500

Illinois U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk has released a video about the recent downgrade of the state’s credit rating. It’s the first video the Republican senator has released that isn’t about his recovery from the stroke he suffered earlier this year.

Kirk’s office has put on the internet produced videos of the senator’s recovery showing him walking on a treadmill or talking with doctors.

His most recent video, however, had a much different tone.

"The issue of pension reform continues to be a dark cloud over Springfield," a television news broadcaster is heard saying on the video with ominous music playing in the background.

The intensely grim minute-and-a-half-long video takes issue with Illinois’ recent credit downgrade, since legislators haven’t voted on the state’s vastly unfunded pension obligation.

At the end of the video, Kirk appears in an office and talks to the camera.

"Everyone inside the borders of Illinois is disadvantaged by these higher interest costs because of poor debt management by our state," he said.

Meantime, Kirk’s fellow Illinois U.S. Senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday that he talks regularly with Kirk, but hasn't seen him in person. Durbin said Kirk is champing at the bit to get back to the Senate.

Kirk has not appeared in public since his stroke in January.

Investigation zeros in on Illinois' community college pension system

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:02:00 -0500

Another issue hung over the state's head is its pensions; more money was promised than available to distribute. But, a new investigation from the Better Government Association took a closer look at one group that continued to make out nicely upon retirement. The BGA’s president and CEO Andy Shaw told Eight Forty-Eight more about the investigation.

Music Button: Ocote Soul Sounds, "Pirata", from the CD Taurus, (ESL)

Mark Kirk says Blagojevich doesn't deserve pension

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:54:00 -0500

Jurors in the corruption retrial of Rod Blagojevich are continuing to deliberate and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., is using the occasion to promote legislation he's introducing.

Kirk's proposed bill targets members of Congress who are convicted on corruption charges, even if those crimes take place after they leave Washington. Kirk pointed to Rod Blagojevich as a good example for how the legislation would work. Blagojevich served six years in the U.S. Congress, representing Chicago's North Side. Later, while governor, he was charged and convicted of lying to federal agents.

Kirk said Blagojevich shouldn't be rewarded with a pension for his time as a Congressman.

"Once you have violated the public trust in that way, I think that the taxpayers should not be supporting your retirement," Kirk said.

Kirk estimates Blagojevich makes several thousand dollars a year from his Congressional pension. The proposed measure wouldn't apply retroactively to Blagojevich.

Rep. Robert Dold, R-Ill., is sponsoring a similar bill in the House.

Investors snap up $3.7 billion in Illinois bonds

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:10:00 -0600

Illinois officials say this week’s bond sale went better than expected, but traders say the state is still paying a higher interest rate than any other state in the country.

Illinois bonds are rated the worst in the country by Moody’s – reflecting the state’s inability to pay its bills and its big pension shortfall.

But that didn’t stop investors from snapping up $3.7 billion worth of bonds yesterday.

John Sinsheimer is director of capital markets for Illinois. He says investors were reassured by the state’s recent income tax hike, but that’s not enough.

"Their concerns were really focused on can we keep the momentum that we’ve got right now, can we keep that going forward and of course we believe that we can," Sinsheimer said.

Sinsheimer says the bonds will pay on average almost three percentage points more than equivalent U.S. Treasury bonds. He says it’s a little better than Illinois officials expected just a few weeks ago.

Illinois bond sale will test investor appetite

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:57:00 -0600

The State of Illinois will find out this week how willing investors are to buy the state’s bonds, which are rated the lowest in the country by Moody’s. The state plans to sell $3.7 billion worth of bonds as early as tomorrow to make this year’s pension payment.

Brian Battle is a director with the Chicago-based investment advisory firm Performance Trust Capital Partners. He says this move to pay current obligations with borrowing is just a short-term fix that does nothing to solve the state's longer-term pension problem.

"It’s taking one credit card and paying off a different one," Battle says. "You owe the money to the pension plan? Oh, now abracadabra, you owe the money to the bond holders. That is known as a budget gimmick. This is not known as a typical way to manage your pension liabilities."

Battle says because the state’s bonds are rated so poorly, Illinois will likely have to pay investors the highest interest rate of any state.

And the sale won’t do anything to fill the state’s pension shortfall from prior years. That totals about $86 billion.

Burge gets to keep pension

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:44:00 -0600

Former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge will get to keep his public pension benefits, despite a federal conviction for lying about the torture of criminal suspects, a police pension board voted Thursday.

The 4-4 vote by the Policeman's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago means that Burge, 63, will be able to collect rouhgly $3,000 in benefits each month for the rest of his life. Five votes were needed to terminate Burge's pension.

Thursday's vote comes less than a week after Federal Judge Joan Lefkow sentenced Burge to 4 1/2 years in prison for lying about the torture of scores of criminal suspects during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2006, a special prosecutor found Burge likely oversaw the beating, suffocation and electro-shocking of suspects in police custody, but he was never charged for the abuse because the statute of limitations had run out.

Burge's perjury conviction stems from false statements he made in 2003 connected to a civil trial. He was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993 for mistreating a suspect. Pension board trustee Michael Shields, who voted against cancelling Burge's benefits, said Thursday's vote had nothing to do with the torture allegations. He said Burge was no longer on the force when he perjured himself.

"I don't want Chicago police officers to, you know, live in fear that 15 years after their retirement - such as Mr. Burge's case - they will be stripped of their pension fund," Shields said. "Jon Burge was no longer serving the police department. He was no longer acting in any official capacity as a Chicago Police Officer."

Illinois pension law says employees should lose their pensions if they're convicted of a felony "relating to or arising out of or in connection with" their job.

Chicago City Treasurer Stephanie Neely, the board member who moved to ax Burge's pension, acknowledged that the perjury took place a decade after he'd left the police department. But she said there's no doubt his actions were connected to his job.

If the trustees had voted to terminate Burge's retirement benefits, he would have been in for a one-time $66,000 payout, and could have appealed the decision to a Cook County court. But Thursday's vote leaves no room for appeal, said a lawyer for the board.

"To me, there was enough gray in the law that I would like to see the appellate court's decision," Neely said.

What’s the point? An odd email from the Illinois GOP.

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:59:00 -0600

Earlier today, the Illinois Republican Party sent reporters an "ICYMI" email. That stands for "in case you missed it," a standard heading on messages containing news articles that a campaign or group wants to draw the media's attention to.

In this case, the message contained an article written recently by Bloomberg that highlighted Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's criticisms of the pension reform bill Governor Pat Quinn signed into law last week. The gist is this: the bill would require Chicago in a few years to pay more into pension funds, a mandate Daley says will necessitate a huge property tax hike.

The point of most ICYMI emails I receive is to either draw attention to something potentially embarrassing an opponent has done, or to draw attention to something fantastic the sending campaign believes it has done. Recent examples from the state GOP: "ICYMI: Senator Kirk Opposes Omnibus Spending Bill" and "ICYMI: Poll Shows Kirk, Brady Heading toward Victory." I can guess the messages behind those: "Mark Kirk is a fiscal conservative," and "We're going to clean up on November 2."

The target of the pension bill is a bit confusing, though. While Quinn did sign the bill into law, it passed with overwhelming support in the legislature. Not a single Republican voted against it in the state Senate (three Democrats did vote no), and only eight Republicans in the House opposed it (along with 10 Democrats).

But the GOP email clearly wanted to draw attention to Quinn's support for the bill. In fact, the party changed the original Bloomberg headline, "Chicago's Daley Says Pension-Overhaul Law Will Bring Record Tax Increase," to "Daley Says Quinn's Pension-Overhaul Will Bring Record Tax Hike."

Maybe the Illinois GOP wanted to highlight Democratic infighting (perhaps not the juiciest of examples, but okay). Maybe the party didn't have a lot of news articles to pick from over the holiday week. Or maybe the sender failed to notice that "Quinn's Pension-Overhaul" was also supported by House GOP Leader Tom Cross, Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno and the party's recent gubernatorial nominee, Sen. Bill Brady.

I emailed Curt Conrad, executive director of the state GOP, to see why the party chose to make sure reporters around the state saw this one particular article, to see what the strategy was. "This was an 'In Case You Missed It' and was not a release," Conrad replied. "We send these out regularly just to keep everyone up to date."

Fair enough. But in a state with so many daily newspapers, was this the most strategic article to highlight and send around?

Quinn aims to persuade Republicans to vote for pension borrowing plan

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:00:00 -0600

Illinois legislators return to Springfield this week as the fall veto session continues. One key issue facing the state senate is a plan to borrow $4 billion for the pension system.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn says he's trying to get Republicans to support for the plan. "I believe that we'll have the votes for everything we need to do but we're putting together the program now - a plan - and we like to talk to everyone," Quinn said.

Some Republican leaders have resisted the borrowing plan, saying it would put the state in a deeper financial hole. The Illinois House narrowly passed the bill in the spring.