In the News

Northbrook Star, Pioneer Press, June 22, 2010

"It's not as bad as you think it is down in the State Capitol," said state Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-9th, referring to Illinois' gaping deficit.

"It's worse," he deadpanned Monday at Northbrook Chamber of Commerce's annual legislative wrap-up lunch at the Hilton Chicago Northbrook.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, D-29th and state Representatives Elaine Nekritz, D-57th, and Karen May, D-58th, and joined him in presenting information on state finances and funding public employee pensions.

Schoenberg said major victims of the state's $13 billion deficit were nonprofit social service agencies and hospitals that provide health care.

"We need to get them the funds for mental illness help, drugs and other human needs," he said.

Helping the void, Schoenberg said a $1 tax hike for a pack of cigarettes has raised $300 million for Medicaid reimbursements and health services.

Instead of state government borrowing money, Garrett said Illinois needed to cut operations of state programs, but not in social services.

"We need to think ahead four, five and six years down the road. As legislators, we must work with the governor for reasonable cuts," she said.

Garrett said an opportunity to cut spending is when renewed state contracts will soon be renegotiated.

"In the past, state contracts were automatically renewed. We can't afford that any longer. We need to take advantage of this to get the biggest bang for our buck," she said.

May said a "major reform" for public pensions was extending the retirement to 67 and capping pensions of individual employees.

In creating jobs, May said legislators passed a $2,500 tax credit effective in July 2011 whenever an employer created a new job.

In addition, she said the federal government approved $2.5 billion to create jobs in Illinois.

On pensions, Nekritz said the Illinois Constitution enabled teachers to receive. "It's quite clear we can't impact current public employees who contribute 11 percent of their pay to pensions. You can't chop off benefits if people have been paying into it," she said.