(NOTE: The following is just my opinion! I've tried my very best to keep the following post from being politically charged...hopefully I've succeeded. But being a retired public employee, I have a major stake in all of this prattle, and am not very good at being soft spoken when politicians try to shift blame from themselves and their cronies, onto the backs of those who now provide or have provided services to the public. This will be my one and only statement on this topic...otherwise I'll end up saying too much and get the boot.)
I believe that before the [-]crooks[/-] politicians start axing pension benefits, they should
FIRST AND FOREMOST start axing THEIR blatant wasteful spending. A very recent case in point....our local state senator drove 130 miles form his home to the state capitol in Springfield, where he boarded a state helicopter to fly to a [-]grand-standing publicity stunt[/-] 26 miles from his home. The "event" was supposedly to see about taking action on an ongoing problem that he has absolutely
NO jurisdiction over in the least, and even less knowledge of. His local constituents were not too happy with him about it either!
That is a very small drop in the bucket of our state's fiscal woes, but every drop adds up to an ocean!
Likewise our former, now impeached, governor refused to stay even
ONE night in the governor's mansion in Springfield. He opted instead to commute, by state aircraft, to his home in Chicago. At a cost (IIRC) of approximately $5000 per trip....each way!
Those are just two examples of gross wasteful spending, so how many thousands or tens of thousands examples are out there constantly running uncontrollably amuck?!
It's just so much easier to point their finger at the employees, and say
"Hey, look at those evil b@st@rds that are draining all of money out of the state coffers, and hoping to be able to retire at some point before they die!"
And to the politicians that say they will cut taxes and still provide current or better services.....
B.S. It ain't gonna happen...no way...no how!!! In Illinois state income tax is a flat 3%. The current governor (who took over when the former was impeached last year) wants to increase it from 3% to 4.5%....and it will still be lower than many other states. He states that that will help get finances stabilized.....no increase in services, but rather
less cuts in current services. His challengers say they won't raise taxes, but will increase services. One is trying to be truthful, and one isn't.....but sadly, in Illinois politics, truth ain't likely to win an election!