{"id":3408,"date":"2012-05-06T22:06:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T03:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=3408"},"modified":"2018-08-16T15:51:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T20:51:05","slug":"teachers-and-citizens-demand-a-seat-at-the-pension-funding-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=3408","title":{"rendered":"Teachers and Citizens Demand a Seat at the Pension Funding Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of about forty people from Northern Illinois Jobs With Justic<\/a>e gathered in the noon day sun outside Illinois Senator Mike Noland<\/a>‘s office in Elgin on Friday, May 4th.\u00a0 The people wanted Senator Noland to hear their concerns about the lack of revenue and funding for Illinois teachers’ pensions.\u00a0 Senator Noland is one of four legislators appointed by Quinn to a task force to solve this issue.\u00a0 While earlier State Senator Mike Noland (D-Elgin) had informed the group he would not be present to respond to their rally, he unexpectedly showed up<\/p>\n

John Laesch, from NIJWJ, announced the rally was about the group\u2019s concern regarding the State\u2019s lack of funding for teachers\u2019 pensions, but Noland didn\u2019t seem to understand until the end of the rally that the citizens standing before him had not been sent by the Illinois Education Association (IEA)<\/a> and were instead concerned citizens and workers\u2014about half of whom happened to be teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a workers\u2019 issue. And we are concerned that our legislators have not funded our teachers\u2019 pensions. We have a revenue problem here. This is a concern to all taxpayers and to all people who work for a living,\u201d said Laesch.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Noland immediately wanted to set the agenda and ask the questions. \u201cWhat union are you from?\u201d he pointedly asked. When someone answered that he belonged to the Illinois Educational Association, he said, \u201cI\u2019m here to tell you that your leadership has been misleading you.\u201d Then he added, \u201cWe are not attempting to fund the pension system on the backs of teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how he would fund the pension system in a way that would not land on the backs of teachers or on the backs of the average citizens and workers of Illinois, he did not immediately have creative or constructive answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have told the IEA everything is on the table,\u201d Noland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything on the table means our pensions are going to be attacked,\u201d one retiree said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent employees\u2019 pensions and contributions ARE on the table,\u201d Noland emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe (Illinois) spend the least per capita in this nation. When you can\u2019t cut, can no longer borrow, what do you have left?\u201d he asked the crowd. Then he answered himself, \u201cWe need to increase taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A progressive income tax, rather than the flat tax Illinois currently has, is another option to raise revenue, Noland commented. \u201cWe are not going to dig our selves out of the ditch that this state is in until we engage in structural tax reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

A progressive income tax would take a constitutional amendment to accomplish and would be a long and slow process.<\/p>\n

Bill Barclay, an economist, and member of the Chicago Political Economy Group<\/a> (CPEG) spoke briefly about a $1.00 Speculation Tax on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and on the Chicago Board Options Exchange which has the ability to quickly raise approximately $6 billion yearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m open to everything,\u201d Noland said. Then added, \u201cLet me see the piece of legislation,\u201d rather than offering to propose the legislation himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a general feeling we are left out of the conversation,\u201d said Mary Shesgreen. She and others crowding around the Senator at the close of the meeting requested Noland to call for a forum to be held with Governor Quinn, those on his pension task force\u2014Rep. Nekritz (D-Northbrook)<\/a>, Rep. Senger (R-Naperville)<\/a>, Sen. Brady (R-Bloomington)<\/a>, and himself, and concerned citizens to come together for discussion rather than to decide the pension funding issue without appropriate input from concerned citizens. Senator Noland said he had already suggested that and had been turned down but that he would suggest it again.<\/p>\n

The next event scheduled by NIJWJ<\/a> in Noland\u2019s district is a Town Hall Forum on Education to be held Saturday, May 12th at 2:00 PM till 5:00 PM. at the First Congregational Church at 256 E. Chicago St., Elgin, IL. Panelists will discuss SB 7, pension funding, and Stand for Children\u2019s assault on public schools and teachers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of about forty people from Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice gathered in the noon day sun outside Illinois Senator Mike Noland‘s office in Elgin on Friday, May 4th.\u00a0 The people wanted Senator Noland to hear their concerns about the lack of revenue and funding for Illinois teachers’ pensions.\u00a0 Senator Noland is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1025,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78],"tags":[965,487,422,744,2869,754,141,2868,58,10,728,481,723,909,629,964,486,907,906],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7121,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions\/7121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}