March 24, 2014
Ralph Martire of Center for Tax and Budget Accountability Proposes Pension Financing Solution
 |
| Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability has proposed a workable solution to the State’s pension financing problem. |
RALPH
MARTIRE, Executive Director of the Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA), has proposed a multi-year solution to
the State’s pension financing problem that would replace the current 30-year
full-funding plan with a 44-year payment plan. Essentially, he wants to
refinance the pension “mortgage” to lower the annual payment. The Center is a bipartisan fiscal policy think tank
based in Chicago.
MARTIRE’S
PROPOSAL would “restructure” 90 percent of
the $93 billion unfunded liability, or roughly $85 billion. All but ten percent
of the unfunded liability would be paid off by 2057, through equal annual
contributions from State government. Martire estimates the payment would be
approximately $6.9 billion every year for 44 years.
CURRENTLY,
STATE law requires the State government
to pay off the pension systems’ unfunded liability by 2044 in annual
contributions. These contributions, however, increase in size annually between
2013 and 2044. For the Teachers’ Retirement System, for example, the annual
State contribution in 2014 is scheduled to be $3.4 billion, and will increase
over the next 31 years to $9.31 billion.
LEGISLATORS
OF both parties say that this
continually rising “ramp” payment is too expensive and will be unaffordable in
the future because it will re-direct money from other State budget priorities. The pension systems
are left with just 40 percent of the funding they should currently have, which
is well below the 80 percent generally deemed healthy for public systems.
“SIMPLY
RE-AMORTIZING $85 billion
of the unfunded liability into flat, annual debt payments of around $6.9
billion each through 2057 would solve the problem,” explained Martire. “After inflation, this new, flat, annual payment
structure creates a financial obligation for the State that decreases in real
terms over time, in place of the dramatically increasing structure under
current law. Moreover, because some principal would be front-loaded, this
re-amortization would cost taxpayers $35 billion less than current law. It
solves the problem by dealing with the cause.”
THE CURRENT crisis, he added, is the direct result of a 1995 law intended to bring the retirement systems to 90 percent funding by 2045. That legislation so back-loaded the payment schedule that the unfunded liability will continue to grow until FY 2030, topping out at $133.4 billion, while the required annual State contribution will continue rising to reach $17.6 billion in 2045.
THE CURRENT crisis, he added, is the direct result of a 1995 law intended to bring the retirement systems to 90 percent funding by 2045. That legislation so back-loaded the payment schedule that the unfunded liability will continue to grow until FY 2030, topping out at $133.4 billion, while the required annual State contribution will continue rising to reach $17.6 billion in 2045.
THE
STATE’S fiscal system has a structural
imbalance and therein lays the problem, according to Martire. Even in a normal
economy, the system cannot keep pace with the cost of delivering the same level
of services every year, much less meet a back-loaded repayment schedule for
unfunded liability in a pension system. The fiscal structures needed to fund
the current plan do not exist.
“THE
CURRENT repayment
structure is not a creature of actuarial assumptions or actuarial requirements
but is purely a legal fiction the State imposed upon itself to kick the funding
can down the road,” Martire said. “So, to solve the real problem that is
creating pressure on the State’s fiscal system, the State has to re-amortize
the debt repayment schedule or the fiscal pressure will not be alleviated.“WE’VE GOT to live within an existing fiscal system and find a practical approach to solving this problem,” he added. “We still have to maintain the fiscal capacity to pay for State services as well as our other debt. Also, the State has to share its income tax revenue with local government.”
THE DEMANDS being made on the State fiscal system go well beyond paying for pensions, he added. The majority of the State’s money is used to pay for education, healthcare, and public safety.
MARTIRE
URGES UIC employees to prevail upon their
State representatives and State senators to do the right thing, which in this
case is take a realistic approach to funding the pension system.
FOR
MORE information about the CTBA,
see www.ctbaonline.org.
SUAA Sues Over Pension Changes
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THE STATE Universities Annuitants Association (SUAA) on behalf of its members and a group of active and retired University employees filed a lawsuit March 6 in Champaign County Circuit Court challenging Senate Bill 1, [PA 98 -599] which causes significant cuts to public pensions and affects State University and Community College employees who are paid through the State University Retirement System (SURS).
“WE WERE put in a position where our only course of action was to file this lawsuit,” said Linda Brookhart, Executive Director of SUAA. “We have a responsibility to represent the interest of our members and to also stand against a law we believe violates the Illinois Constitution in a variety of ways.”
SUAA’s LAWSUIT challenges the changes to the pension code on the basis that they violate three different clauses of the Illinois Constitution. The suits claims Senate Bill 1 violates the Pension Clause (Article 13 Sec. 5), which forbids diminishment of pensions, the Takings Clause (Article 1 Sec. 15), which forbids taking of private property for public use without just compensation, and the Contracts Clause (Article 1 Sec. 16), which forbids the State to breach contracts that it makes. Several other lawsuits making similar arguments have also been filed across the State
on behalf of public employees, but SURS members are different in some significant ways, according to
SUAA.
SURS MEMBERS have the ability to choose one of three different retirement options, but once they choose a retirement option, they are locked into their retirement plan. By changing the rules governing the various SURS retirement plans, SUAA believes the State is in breach of contract.
ADDITIONALLY SURS members have the ability to buy years off their retirement. Senate Bill 1 increases the retirement age requirements, which mean SURS members who bought years back thinking they would retire at a certain age will have to work longer as a result, which SUAA believes is a breach of the agreement these employees had with the State.
“SURS MEMBERS make an irrevocable choice between different kinds of pension plans, and many pay more into the system to ‘buy years,’” Brookhart said. “When the State then changes the rules, it puts our folks in a trick box. We appreciate that other groups are fighting this law, but we have an obligation to ensure that those issues which are unique to current and retired employees of State universities and community colleges are fully presented.”
APAC Elections Coming
APAC REPRESENTS more
than 3,500 Academic Professionals on campus and advises University
Administration, reviews policy, represents APs on search committees, voices
concerns regarding APs to the Chancellor, and plays an active role in professional
development efforts at UIC. APAC is comprised of 15-to-18 APs, elected for a
three-year term. Approximately one-third of the APAC seats are up for election
this year.
APAC Meetings Scheduled
ALL APs are invited to the
monthly APAC meeting at 12:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month.
Meetings are held either in Room 5175 of the College of Medicine Research
Building, 909 S. Wolcott, or Room 2750 of University Hall on the East Campus.
Next meeting is April 9 at a special time, noon, in Room 2750 of University
Hall. For information, call (312) 996-0306.
Learn Facilitative Management
SOME OF
the most effective
managers are those who coach their staff. These managers excel at empowering
employees to create unique solutions by facilitating a dialogue that focuses on
their employees’ strengths. The result is a strong buy-in from staff due to
their personal investment. In this workshop, participants will learn what it
means to manage as a coach, be introduced to some basic coaching skills and
have an opportunity to practice those skills.
THIS WORKSHOP will be facilitated by Bob Kiser, a certified
coach, mediator, and motivational speaker. He received his certifications
from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and the Center for
Conflict Resolution. Besides his private practice, Kiser also serves as the
Assistant Director of the Graham Clinical Performance Center in the Medical
Education Department.
THIS
EVENT
will be held at the College of Medicine Research Building (COMRB), 909 S.
Wolcott Ave., Room 8175 on the Medical Center Campus.
Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of LGBTQPA Provides Forum for Sexual Identity and Gender Diversity
DIVERSITY AT UIC is inherent,
yet sensitivity to the campus’s varied population benefits from focused
institutional attention. The Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer People and Allies (CCSLGBTQPA) works with the
Chancellor and Provost to address issues and concerns of the gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgender, and queer community at UIC.
THE COMMITTEE revised its name
last year to expand its reach and recognize the transgendered and queer
communities, as well as allies.
“IT IS important that
the Chancellor’s Committee is inclusive in as many ways as we can be,” said
committee co-chair Patricia O’Brien,
associate professor of Social Work. “We want people to feel welcome. Words are
important. We value everyone across the rainbow. And we recognize that allies
are crucial to change in the world: We recognize that these people are
straight, but not narrow.”
THE COMMITTEE operates with a
duo of balanced leadership comprised of a faculty and a staff member. Their
terms overlap, so that one leader always has experience with the group.
(O’Brien, who has led the committee in the past, is completing a one-year
appointment to fill a gap.)
CO-CHAIR PHILIP Vasquez, associate director of Student Development Services, was recruited to
join the committee by a past chair and then volunteered to be a co-chair
through spring of 2014. Vasquez joined because he wanted to integrate his
professional work with diversity education—including co-directing the First
Year Dialogue Seminar, a diversity seminar for freshmen—with diversity work
around the campus.
“THE COMMITTEE advocates on
institutional issues for faculty, employees, and students,” Vasquez said. “I am
interested in student issues, especially transgender issues. My work with that population exposes a lot of
marginalization. My priority is to
advocate for these students, and this committee cuts across units and offices
at UIC.”
THE COMMITTEE also collaborates
on many projects and issues with the Gender and Sexuality Center.
AMONG FUTURE goals, Vasquez
cites increasing outreach to faculty regarding LGTBQ students on campus.
“Anecdotally, we hear from students on campus that they struggle with
professors who are hetero-normative or traditional-gender oriented and may ask
questions that aren’t inclusive,” Vasquez said.
O’BRIEN ALSO stressed the
importance of nurturing campus diversity and examining barriers. “The
administration talks about our amazing diversity, but that doesn’t mean the
climate and environment are absolutely friendly,” she said. “I can tell you
from surveys that everything is not all right—we need consistent attention on
comments and actions that keep people from being fully included.”
AMONG THOSE barriers is a
registration system that only allows for legal first names—not preferred first
names—to be listed. Legal first names often are gender-specific, and professors
calling roll inadvertently make students disclose a gender they may not
identify with, O’Brien explained. “In every single class, that student has to
disclose they are not the assumed gender that the name implies,” O’Brien said.
“This is huge for that student and how they are engaged in that class. They
have to automatically tell their story, whether they want to or not.”
THE UIC campus is a
leader within the University of Illinois, Vasquez noted, as the only campus
that currently includes transgendered health issues in campus health insurance.
The Board of Trustees voted last year to allow people to use their medical plan
to move toward surgery related to change in gender.
AN ISSUE currently under
exploration by CCSLGBTQPA is the inclusive climate at the University of
Illinois Hospital. “We have questions about the UI Hospital not being on the
Health Equality Index, which is sponsored by a national organization, the Human
Rights Campaign,” O’Brien said, noting the index “indicates the degree to which
a hospital is LGBT-affirming and inclusive. This includes the training that
medical personnel get with language around patients and partners. This matters
in the context of dealing with serious issues. We are developing a task force
to move forward with training for the hospital to be more cognizant and
affirming.”
THE UIC campus does hold
a five-star rating from the Campus Pride Climate Index and is listed among the
top 25 LGBT friendly school in the nation. “This is fantastic,” O’Brien said.
“The Alliance for Safe Schools says that because we have structures in
place—like the CCSLGBTQPA, partner benefits, and the Gender and Sexuality
Center—we have gone a ways to establish a safe context. This is very
important.”
THE CCSLGBTQPA awards annual
scholarships to a UIC graduate and undergraduate student demonstrating
excellence and involvement in the LGBTQ community.
THE COMMITTEE’S focus on students culminates in the annual Lavender Graduation, a
celebration for LGBTQPA students and their family and friends, as well as
faculty and staff. The event is sponsored by the gender and Sexuality Center,
with funding and personal support from the CCSLGBTQPA. Now in its eighth year,
the event continues to grow in size and importance, both Vasquez and O’Brien
report. This year’s event is slated for Friday, May 2, 4-6:30 p.m. in the UIC
Forum. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax4BMPbUNsI)
“I WAS at the first
one,” O’Brien recalled. “There were three graduates. Last year, there were
about 50 graduates and we have outgrown the space we used to use. This year we
will be at the Forum. It is a great celebration, a connecting event—very affirming.”
“THE EVENT validates the
students’ hard work and the University’s support of them,” Vasquez said.
“Twenty-five years ago, this event didn’t exist. It makes the students feel
good that University leaders support them. We get great feedback on it.”
THE CCSLGBTQPA also supports the
Lavender Research Forum. The Monday, April 14, event in Room 1-470 of the UIC
Daley Library will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free and open to the
public (RSVP to philipva@uic.edu
for lunch reservations). UIC alum Kim
Hunt, executive director of Affinity Community Services, a social justice
organization on the South Side specializing in work on behalf of Black LGBTQ
adults and youth, will be the keynote speaker.
“I AM very excited
about this keynote,” O’Brien said. “She is one of ours—earning a master’s in
urban planning and policy in 1987—and has amazing experience in the community.
She can talk about the linkage of community and university research.”
MEMBERS OF the UIC community
are invited to become involved in the CCSLGBTQPA. While the 14 positions on the
official roster are by appointment by the Chancellor, meetings are public and
all are invited to attend.
“ANYONE CAN attend and get
involved,” Vasquez said. “We have working teams, and the UIC public can get
involved. We like volunteers and new people to come. I especially want to
encourage younger and newer staff to come get involved. This isn’t a group just
for ‘higher ups’…I’d love to see more Academic Professionals show up.”
THE COMMITTEE’S next monthly meeting is Thursday, April 10, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in
Room 2750 of University Hall.
| Upcoming CCSLGBTQPA dates: |
Thursday, April
10—Monthly committee meeting, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Room 2750, University
Hall.
|
Monday, April 14
–Lavender Research Forum, Room 1-470,
UIC Daley Library, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free and open to the public (RSVP to philipva@uic.edu for lunch reservations).
|
Friday, May
2—Lavender Graduation, 4 to 6:30 p.m. in the UIC Forum.
|
FOR MORE MARCH 2014 APAC NEWS STORIES, CLICK HERE
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