Article I, SECTION 16. EX POST FACTO LAWS
AND IMPAIRING CONTRACTS
No ex post facto law, or law impairing the
obligation of contracts or making an irrevocable grant of special privileges or
immunities, shall be passed.
(Source: Illinois
Constitution.)
Article XIII, SECTION 5. PENSION AND
RETIREMENT RIGHTS
Membership in any pension or retirement
system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any
agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual
relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.
(Source: Illinois
Constitution.)
Article XIII, SECTION 3. OATH OR AFFIRMATION OF OFFICE
Each prospective holder of a State office
or other State position created by this Constitution, before taking office,
shall take and subscribe to the following oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (affirm) that I will support the Constitution
of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and that I
will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of .... to the best of my
ability."
(Source: Illinois
Constitution.)
Dear Senator Biss,
As a retired teacher, I very much appreciate your update.
Especially on this date, I am reminded of how important it
is to respect our Constitution – both the responsibilities and rights it
affords us. I sincerely hope your committee does, indeed “respect(s) this
clause,” as you note, and does not focus on finding a letter of the law means
to circumvent such an important protection. Everything contained within
our Constitution was put there for a reason. The intent of such a
guarantee is abundantly clear.
It has been very popular to blame the pension for the
fiscal woes of our state. In truth, our state’s fiscal woes emanate from
our legislators allowing pension payments not
to be made for decades.
This has robbed the retirees, not only of the required payments themselves, but
of the interest that would have accrued on those payments. This has
literally taken money from our pockets. This is the cause of the state’s
fiscal woes. No one, however, has tracked the years during which the
required payments were not made, and held the legislators who were in
office during those times to be accountable. Instead, it has been more
convenient to blame the pension and its recipients. This is tantamount to
blaming the rape victim.
In many cases, the public is now quite willing to blame
the pension recipients for the state’s financial woes. They also
seem to believe we receive health insurance free of charge, and believe we also
receive social security (to which many of us have fully paid our 40 quarters,
but will receive no benefit.)
But here we are. So what do we do?
1. We honor our Constitution. What a
terrifying precedent we set if we do otherwise. What other rights may be
taken from us by opening that Pandora’s box?
2. We do not take away the benefits of those who
have already retired, calculating their ability to do so based on a contractual
agreement with the State.
3. We restructure the debt so that we can meet our
obligations. This will truly guarantee that the “sacrifice” will be
shared, and not just thrown on the backs of those who are already the victims
of lost revenue. We trusted our legislators to protect us. They let
us down for decades with no consequence to themselves.
If the State then believes there is a need to restructure
the pension for new employees in collaboration with the unions, that is a
discussion that must be had. New employees will have 30 years to
prepare. That is a luxury current retirees do not have.
Please do not punish us again for a crime we did not
commit. It is sadly ironic that we must depend on the very body
responsible for this debacle to help us. Worse yet, we must beseech them to do
so.
Thank you for your attention. May you all be
divinely inspired to do the right thing.
Sincerely,
Terri Carroll
Next public meeting of the Committee of Ten is on July 8, in Springfield, Capitol Bldg. 409.
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