On Air Now

Hammond talks shortcomings of pension consolidation bill

The Illinois General Assembly recently passed legislation designed to aid municipalities with the cost of public safety pensions, but one of Galesburg’s representatives was opposed.

Republican Norine Hammond voted against legislation to consolidate the around 650 downstate Illinois public safety pensions into two state-wide funds, one for police, another for firefighters.

She says this is something that has been discussed for a long time
Hammond says the process went too quickly, even though initially the legislation’s concept made a lot of sense to her.

“We gotta dig down deep into this whole issue and figure out how we put our communities on [a better] financial footing with these pension costs because we can’t continue in the way we’re doing it,” Hammond tells WGIL.

Hammond also says she heard a lot of opposition from both active members and retirees of fire departments and police forces.

She felt the bill was rushed and doesn’t necessarily deal with the problems at the root of Illinois’ pension crisis.

The idea of getting better returns on local pension funds would free up municipalities to either spend funds on other areas or lower property taxes.

But Hammond says nothing specifically about lower property taxes was written into the bill, which concerns her.

She says she also talks to local mayors regularly and hears their concerns over ballooning costs for police and fire pensions.

Hammond says a lot of towns are finding it more cost-effective to pay officers overtime rather than hiring.

She doesn’t claim to have the answers but there need to be all involved parties sitting down and figuring out long term solutions to keep communities safe and from going underwater financially.

Hammond adds that she represents some communities with public safety pensions funds on solid footing, and they don’t like the idea of having their funds immersed with others that are less stable.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims the measure “puts cities in Illinois on a path toward alleviating their massive property tax burdens.”

Recommended Posts

Loading...

Share Contact

contact-chris-mcintyre-qr-code