No surprise that Illinois’ Tier 2 pension law being challenged in court given how it was passed – Wirepoints Quickpoint
The law was bulldozed through in 2010 by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton in less than 12 hours with no analysis, debate or actuarial assessment.
This later Miller column is a bit disingenuous. It talks about the state’s perceived lack of “higher education appropriations” lately but glosses over the #1 reason for this: Pensions. He states “State higher education appropriations peaked in fiscal 2002 at $2.4 billion” but fails to mention the state was only obliged to contribute only $300M to SURS back then (POB doesn’t count). This year, I think the pension contribution tops $1.7 billion. If you take into account ALL higher ed funding (operations, grants, pensions, etc), higher ed appropriations have tracked quite well with inflation, it’s just that pensions have consumed… Read more »
Mr. Miller, quite frankly, is a goof with a pen.
Takes shots at you on his site, blocks your response, then lets his lying followers spew away with total crap. Chicken shit and dishonest.
Mark – This goes back to how Miller is clever in manipulating the conversation. He’s so focused on the 2-to-1 funding ratio between lower and higher ed, which deflects from the main issue why funding for higher ed has lagged in general. And this question goes unasked: If the 2-1 ratio is so important, why not take a third of that $300M per year for “equity based funding” and pump it into higher ed? He kinda touches on that point, but more in the sense of a separate equity based funding for higher ed. Basically, his article is a marketing… Read more »
Miller is a serial spin artist for public unions. Particularly dishonest and chicken sh– the way he rigs his comment board.