Every one knows the abysmal state the budget in Illinois is in right now. The state is $12billion in debt. The legislature is doing everything it can to come up with new income streams. Even if it means cutting into the pension fund of teachers and public servants.
Every time you turn on a radio these days, at every commercial break you hear a message sponsored by the teacher's unions and the public servants such as policemen and fire fighters. Every one should agree that we figuratively and literally owe a lot to all of these workers. They all serve and work at thankless jobs. The ads even say that Illinois has some of the best teachers in the country. I love the bumper sticker that reads "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it's in English, thank a vet." The ads go on to talk about how the Illinois legislature is at it again. They are raiding the pension fund of these workers and using the fund as a credit card.
Teachers do not qualify for social security and they have always contributed to their own pension fund. Some teachers contribute up to 8-10% of their own annual income into the pension fund. Teachers are not the highest paid workers in any state, but especially in the state of Illinois. Teaching is not just a job. It is a way of life. These teachers spend so much more time in the classroom and at home preparing for what they are going to teach our young minds full of mush and grading papers than what the 7:45-3:15 schedule that says they have to be in the classroom. For all of this and everything they do, I give all teachers my undying thanks and gratitude for teaching our kids. They accept the lower pay throughout their careers in exchange for what should be a nice pension during their retirement. They have made their contributions consistently all along, just for our state legislators to use their pension fund as a credit card. Now that some of them are ready to retire and dip into that pension fund the funds may not be there.
The radio ads go on to talk about how hard the teachers work, how they contribute to their own retirement and how the funds may not be there due to what the state government is doing to their pension fund. The ads also talk about wanting people to contact their legislators to get them to stop this practice. They also have a website that you can refer to to learn more about this situation and I'm sure they would appreciate contributions so they can fight this practice in the courts or legislature. Who are these people that are "raiding" the pension fund?
Just a little bit a of a civics lesson here. The Illinois legislature is made up of two houses, the State Senate and the General Assembly. And then there is the Executive branch that has the governor. The 97th General Assembly has 177 members of which 99 are Democrats and 78 are Republicans and the governor is a Democrat. There are 35 Democrats in the Senate compared to 24 Republicans. There are 64 Democrats in the House compared to 54 Republicans. Statistics show that the teacher's unions, the IEA, and the NEA tend to contribute the majority of their campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. Why would they continue to do this if these are the same people, according to their own ads, these legislators are raiding their pension fund?
Again, I cannot stress my gratitude toward teachers for their dedication and service. I don't, however, appreciate our legislators raiding their pension funds to put to use in other budgetary needs. I also don't appreciate the unions continuing to contribute funds to the campaigns of the same people who have raided those pension funds. Stop it! Stop using the teacher's pensions for other budget short falls. And unions stop supporting those same people who are doing it!
The only other prominent comparison that I can make to this is when the vast majority of the Jewish Community continues to support and contribute to the same Democrat Party whose leader just threw them under the bus by not supporting the Jewish State of Israel, and in fact has totally supported the Palestinians who want to annihilate them. It makes no sense to me.
