Showing posts with label pension. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pension. Show all posts
5:50 AM
mercer county fair
Unknown
The Mercer County Fair got under way on Tuesday, July 8th. The Mercer County Republican Central Committee has a booth in the Merchant's Building. How many years have both political parties had a booth? I don't know exactly, but for many years. Our booths are right across from each other too. How 'bout that! Makes for some interesting discussion.
We gave away 300 popcicles on Wednesday for Kid's Day. What a treat and a great response! We gave some out to folks who are kids at heart too! On Friday, Republican Day, we're giving out watermelon. So far our response has been excellent.
In talking with folks I've learned that a major concern is adding more debt that has to be managed by more taxes. Keep taxes flat is a big message. The pension liability has to be tackled, but remember this is not a situation that can be fixed overnight. I'm talking about a time frame of 25 - 28 years. Also keep in mind that the liability is at 42 - 44 billion dollars! Too much underfunding for about twenty years has taken its toll. Strict fiscal discipline has to be maintained to solve this. Remember that a bill put off today has to be paid tomorrow.
We gave away 300 popcicles on Wednesday for Kid's Day. What a treat and a great response! We gave some out to folks who are kids at heart too! On Friday, Republican Day, we're giving out watermelon. So far our response has been excellent.
In talking with folks I've learned that a major concern is adding more debt that has to be managed by more taxes. Keep taxes flat is a big message. The pension liability has to be tackled, but remember this is not a situation that can be fixed overnight. I'm talking about a time frame of 25 - 28 years. Also keep in mind that the liability is at 42 - 44 billion dollars! Too much underfunding for about twenty years has taken its toll. Strict fiscal discipline has to be maintained to solve this. Remember that a bill put off today has to be paid tomorrow.
9:26 AM
I am a bit late in getting this out......but what a great time in Cordova on June 20th! Rich and Betsy Morthland did a superb job in organizing this event. The folks were excellent and I met many concerned citizens that want a change in state government.
I talked about the current state of affairs with the budget crisis. The situation is not good with several state agencies unable to function because of a lack of money. We need to address these problems and bring Illinois back to a "functioning" public entity. When road repairs are suspended due to a lack of money, obviously something is wrong.
Several cuts have been proposed if the State House of Representatives does not approve more revenue for the state budget. But we must address some other issues first. I included my call for a major, independent auditing firm to go through the state's books and look for fraud and waste. Also the proposed budget needs to get to the legislative branch sooner and a three-fifths majority in both the House and Senate before a tax increase can go to the Governor.
We frankly need to get back to basics. The pension meltdown continues and the unpaid Medicaid bills are piling up. The need for spending cuts is here so that these problems can be addressed and that we can move on to fix the other problems.
The leadership role I would assume if elected is simple: keep a vote on a BALANCED BUDGET alive. Don't sit idly by and allow revenue projections to be too high. That's why the FY08 budget is out of tune....revenue projections were too high!
The message is resonating and the people are listening!
I talked about the current state of affairs with the budget crisis. The situation is not good with several state agencies unable to function because of a lack of money. We need to address these problems and bring Illinois back to a "functioning" public entity. When road repairs are suspended due to a lack of money, obviously something is wrong.
Several cuts have been proposed if the State House of Representatives does not approve more revenue for the state budget. But we must address some other issues first. I included my call for a major, independent auditing firm to go through the state's books and look for fraud and waste. Also the proposed budget needs to get to the legislative branch sooner and a three-fifths majority in both the House and Senate before a tax increase can go to the Governor.
We frankly need to get back to basics. The pension meltdown continues and the unpaid Medicaid bills are piling up. The need for spending cuts is here so that these problems can be addressed and that we can move on to fix the other problems.
The leadership role I would assume if elected is simple: keep a vote on a BALANCED BUDGET alive. Don't sit idly by and allow revenue projections to be too high. That's why the FY08 budget is out of tune....revenue projections were too high!
The message is resonating and the people are listening!
12:54 PM
Woefully bad. That's what is said to describe the Illinois government state pension problems. The major problem is debt. The entire state budget is 59 billion dollars, so 44 billion dollars of long-tern debt to the pension systems is a big liability.
What did lawmakers do? Nothing. The Blagojevich Administration and the Senate Democrats wants another 16 billion dollar bond issue to pay down the debt. That would then free up money destined for pensions to be spent elsewhere: education, health care and the like. The idea is to put the borrowed money into the pension systems. This would cut the debt and reduce interest costs. The Governor is hoping that the bond debt interest would be 6%, compared to the pension debt of 8.5%, thus saving money.
Well and good you say? There was a catch....the Senate Democrats, and only the Democrats voted for it, but when it went to the House, Speaker Madigan didn't call it for a vote. Keep in mind that some House Republicans would have to vote for this if it's to pass the House.
So what's the problem? Well for starters, converting pension debt (which can be paid off any time) into bond debt puts the payment plan on a strict schedule. With the state financial situation on shaky ground, with help from the volatile stock market, should Illinois be obligated to such a plan? Those for it see that the required pension systems payment would be knocked down to 300 million dollars from 800 million dollars, thus giving the state an additional 500 million dollars to spend elsewhere. That's the money I mentioned in the second paragraph that would be freed up. That's not all.... the proposed FY 09 budget the Governor submitted assumed that the pension bond issue would have passed, thus leaving the 500 million hole that's part of the 2.1 billion dollar deficit total.
I would advise to cut 500 million dollars of spending out of the budget along with the matching revenue stream (the leftover). That still leaves us with 1.6 billion dollars to cut. Oh well....it's a start!
What did lawmakers do? Nothing. The Blagojevich Administration and the Senate Democrats wants another 16 billion dollar bond issue to pay down the debt. That would then free up money destined for pensions to be spent elsewhere: education, health care and the like. The idea is to put the borrowed money into the pension systems. This would cut the debt and reduce interest costs. The Governor is hoping that the bond debt interest would be 6%, compared to the pension debt of 8.5%, thus saving money.
Well and good you say? There was a catch....the Senate Democrats, and only the Democrats voted for it, but when it went to the House, Speaker Madigan didn't call it for a vote. Keep in mind that some House Republicans would have to vote for this if it's to pass the House.
So what's the problem? Well for starters, converting pension debt (which can be paid off any time) into bond debt puts the payment plan on a strict schedule. With the state financial situation on shaky ground, with help from the volatile stock market, should Illinois be obligated to such a plan? Those for it see that the required pension systems payment would be knocked down to 300 million dollars from 800 million dollars, thus giving the state an additional 500 million dollars to spend elsewhere. That's the money I mentioned in the second paragraph that would be freed up. That's not all.... the proposed FY 09 budget the Governor submitted assumed that the pension bond issue would have passed, thus leaving the 500 million hole that's part of the 2.1 billion dollar deficit total.
I would advise to cut 500 million dollars of spending out of the budget along with the matching revenue stream (the leftover). That still leaves us with 1.6 billion dollars to cut. Oh well....it's a start!