Pritzker Pushes To Consolidate Pensions

By Nick Gale, WLS-AM 890 News

(CHICAGO) — Gov. J.B. Pritzker today announced the findings and recommendations of the Pension Consolidation Feasibility Task Force.

He says the task force found that suburban and downstate police and firefighter pension funds are under-performing by nearly one million dollars per day and that consolidation would help secure the future of the plans while shoring them up to improve financial health.

Former GOP Leader Christine Radogno is backing the proposal.

“While there is more work to be done, I will whole heartedly recommend to my former colleagues that they pass this legislation, in the veto session, so we can immediately begin to reap the benefits of close to 1 million dollars a day for the tax payers.”

Absent from the plan are Chicago police and fire pension funds, which Mayor Lori Lightfoot has pushed the state to take over. Additionally, the Illinois FOP has expressed some concerns.

“Law enforcement officers were not allowed to participate, provide feedback or be shown that this was anything other than an attempt to grab officers’ money,” said FOP Labor Council Executive Director Shawn Roselieb, who notes that the committee’s meetings were not open to the public. “Officers have paid their own money into these police pension funds every working day of their lives.”

The FOP also contends that the report recommends that the consolidated police pension fund be governed by a board where only 50 percent of the trustees are law enforcement officers. Illinois’ 16 current public employee retirement funds, including the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, are constituted of governing boards with a majority of members of the fund.

Copyright 2019 WLS-AM News

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