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House resolution aims to stop pension shift

Shifting the state’s pension obligation to local municipalities and school districts was one of the key parts of Governor Bruce Rauner’s budget address last week but now the Illinois House looks to stop it.

Republican State Representative David McSweeney of Barrington Hills has introduced a resolution that hopes end the pension shift to school districts citing the financial burden this would put on them and a property tax hike that would be needed to cover the costs.

State Representatives Dan Swanson and Norine Hammond have co-sponsored McSweeney’s bill.

Swanson says that the extra dollars being added to the schools were meant to set them up for success, “With this pension shift, those dollars are quickly swept aside and now are going for pension shift costs as opposed to education which was our primary concern.”

Knoxville Superintendent Steve Wilder had told WGIL last week that while pension reform is needed, pushing the estimated $490M pension costs and only boosting education funding by $350M will create issues.

“School districts have to look at things like cutting staff and expenses to make that happen,” Wilder says. “And I know some schools will have to look at increasing taxes to pay for that because there’s no way to make it happen.”

Superintendent Joe Sornberger from ROWVA District 208, says that his district would have to take general state aid payment money to cover the pension costs.

“We’re gonna shift this pension back to local school districts, and then that will make our bottom line look better. Well it does on paper.” He added, “it doesn’t solve the pension problem.”

HR27 has been introduced in the house, but no action has been made on it yet.

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