How can we be losing the information war in Illinois when terrific research and reporting like this is conducted? Because too few on our side understand the basics of marketing, messaging, outreach and communications — that’s how.
Here are two excellent and related posts:
Consider the Source: Ex-Governor Edgar Rakes in Millions from Underfunded Pension
By Allen Skillicorn, candidate for state representativeJim Edgar has been getting a lot press lately for pushing Speaker Mike Madigan’s $7,000,000,000 out of balance spending spree. What Edgar isn’t talking about is why Illinois’ finances are in such shambles.
Notice that the former governor doesn’t talk about a quarter of our budget going to fund pensions. He doesn’t talk about the pension debt that crowds out spending on the mentally handicapped or educating our children. No talk about the fact that Jim Edgar mortgaged our pensions through his infamous “Edgar Pension Ramp”!
As of Jan 2016, Jim Edgar’s GARS pension info:
Twenty-two years ago, both Jim Edgar and Mike Madigan colluded on a plan to allow them both to spend more money than they had. They knew that fully funding pensions was expensive and the legislature, like a pay-day loan store, would allow them to come up with scheme that could pass billions of debt to the next generation.
Read more: Illinois Review
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Former Gov. Edgar’s ‘Compromise’ Pension Plan Led to Illinois Fiscal Crisis
By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, Illinois Policy InstituteUnder former Gov. Jim Edgar’s pension ramp, unfunded pension liabilities have increased nearly $100 billion despite taxpayers contributing $16.4 billion more to the five state-run pension systems than required under the Edgar plan.
In Illinois, the idea of “compromise” has become synonymous with “passing the buck.”
Whether it was former governors Jim Edgar, George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich or Pat Quinn, politicians always seem to have ended up striking deals with House Speaker Mike Madigan that avoided real pension and spending reforms. Their compromises – more debt, skipped pension contributions, and pushing off bill payments – accelerated Illinois toward the financial crisis that it finds itself in today.
Perhaps the best example of that Illinois-style compromise – and its failure – is the once-praised Edgar ramp.
In 1994, Edgar spearheaded a bipartisan pension bill he claimed would solve the state’s then-$15 billion pension deficit. The basic setup? Drastically reduce pension payments at the plan’s onset and then steadily increase payments in the future.
Read more: Illinois Policy Institute
Image credit: www.illinoispolicy.org.
