Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Board of education president weighs in on state education appropriations bill, impact it could have on Plainfield schools.
School officials may have breathed a sigh of relief last week after Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan scrapped a plan to shift part of the state’s massive pension liability onto local schools, but it could be short lived. On Monday, Plainfield School District 202 Board of Education president Roger Bonuchi weighed in on education funding cuts, passed by the General Assembly two days after Madigan’s plan was dropped. The $6.5 billion education appropriations bill is expected to slash $161 million in school funding. “They say the foundation level is going to remain unchanged,” Bonuchi said, referring to the per-student allotment school districts receive from the state, currently set at $6,119. But the rate at which funding is doled out to …
Friday, June 1, 2012
A plan to shift the teacher pension burden onto local school districts is dead in the water — at least for now.
Relief was tempered with caution Thursday as District 202 board members reacted to the news that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) was scrapping a plan to pass the cost of teachers’ pensions on to local school districts. The plan, part of Senate Bill 1673, was aimed at addressing the state’s $83 billion unfunded pension liability. More than half — $44 billion — of that is from the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). “It does give me hope,” said board member Mike Kelly, who has traveled to Springfield numerous times to lobby for school funding reform. According to Kelly, if Madigan’s plan had become a reality, it would have cost District 202 between $10 million and $15 million per year. That would have meant more job cuts in …
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Under pressure from Illinois Republicans and Gov. Pat Quinn, House Speaker Michael Madigan announced he's dropping his proposal to shift teacher pension costs to local school districts.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) on Wednesday dropped his controversial proposal to shift the costs of teacher pensions from the state to local school districts, universities and community colleges. The announcement came after two days of spirited debate over pension reform in both the House and Senate. Madigan's plan, which was part of Senate Bill 1673, was widely criticized by Republicans, and threatened to derail other legislation to address the state's massive pension shortfall. Madigan said he reached the decision after Gov. Pat Quinn asked him to drop the amendment, the Associated Press reports. “He agrees with the Republicans. He thinks that we ought to remove the issue of the shift of normal cost out of the bill…
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
A plan to shift the cost of teacher pensions from the state to local school districts became the most hotly debated topic in Springfield on Tuesday.
With the clock ticking on the current legislative session in Springfield, Illinois lawmakers are scrambling to find a solution to the state's massive shortfall in the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS). The most hotly debated topic in the Illinois General Assembly on Tuesday was a plan to gradually shift pension liabilities from the state to local school districts, universities and colleges. The proposal is part of Senate Bill 1673, a pension bill backed by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). An Illinois House committee voted 6-3 to send the proposal to the House before Thursday's adjournment deadline, NBC Chicago reports. House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego slammed Madigan and the proposed shift, calling it a "poison pill" …
silentrippy
8:19 am on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Maybe the school district should stop giving more tax breaks for corporations like the $180,000 tax break from the school district alone on the Diageo expansion. Give them a break and you tax the hell out of the homeowners. Stop the corporate welfare! more ›