Home  >  Illinois  >  Illinois Senate GOP says it alerted feds to state’s pension problems

Illinois Senate GOP says it alerted feds to state’s pension problems

By   /   March 12, 2013  /   6 Comments

Byy Benjamin Yount | Illinois watchdog

SPRINGFIELD  — Illinois Senate Republicans are doing a victory lap — eight years late, mind you, but a victory lap nonetheless.

The Senate GOP is telling anyone in the Illinois Capitol who will listen that it alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission back in 2005 to what Republican Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, called misleading information about the state’s financial condition.

“We are saying, ‘I told you so’,” Radogno said one day after the SEC announced a settlement with Illinois over the state’s financial disclosures between 2005 and 2009.

TOLD YOU SO: IL's Radogno says she tried to warn everyone back in '05.

TOLD YOU SO: IL’s Radogno says she tried to warn everyone back in ’05.

“Clearly it hurts our reputation,” Radogno said. “We already have a bad reputation, a lot of problems. And this just adds to it. It’s a pile-on.”

But Democrats in Springfield say the settlement marks the end of an old problem.

“This is something, to me, that is a lot of discussion about nothing,” said state Rep. Elaine Nekrtiz, D-Northbrooke. “This is a problem that occurred eight years ago that we stopped four years ago.”

Abdon Pallasch, Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget spokesman, said in a statement that Illinois hired outside lawyers in 2010 to review the state’s pension reporting information.

The SEC took the state to task for “not adequately describing the impact of the 50 year ramp,” which has helped create Illinois’ $130 billion pension deficit.

Nekrtiz says the SEC settlement is one more black mark on the tarnished legacy of Rod Blagojevich.

“It looks to me like that,” Nekrtiz added.

BLAME BLAGO: Nekritz says IL, long ago, got honest about its pension problems.

BLAME BLAGO: Nekritz says IL, long ago, got honest about its pension problems.

Blagojevich was the second consecutive Illinois governor to be convicted and sent to prison. The two-term Democrat is serving a 14-year federal prison term for corruption.

But Radogno says Blagojevich can’t be blamed for everything.

“It’s hard not to connect the dots,” Radogno said. “The speaker is the same speaker who passed the budget that had the pension holiday in it that is the basis for this misrepresentation. Any Democrat that was here at the time absolutely bears some blame in this.”

Illinois’ pension mess was not a secret in 2005, but the state had not yet gained a reputation as the worst in the nation, and the SEC said Illinois was not honest with investors who bought the state’s pension bonds.

Ted Dabrowksi, vice president of Policy for the Illinois Policy Institute, said Illinois taxpayers should be wary of any promises of pension reform.

“Bondholders and taxpayers alike are being misinformed,” Dabrowksi said in a statement. “Politicians have proven they can’t manage retirement … . Any new plan needs to get politicians out of the pension business.”

Illinois will not pay any fines or penalties as part of the settlement with the SEC.

But Radogno said the state will pay for its pension misrepresentation. Eventually.

“We’re intending to sell more bonds, probably in April,” Radogno said. “Whether we’ll have to pay a higher interest rate remains to be seen.”


YouTube

Contact Benjamin Yount at Ben@ILWatchdog.org

 

 

Please, feel free to "steal our stuff"! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Ben Yount

  • Mike

    Yet the Republicans are trying to screw the retirees and employees.

  • Bross71760

    Republicans are screwing the retirees? Yeah, sure. Ok, let’s say that’s true. The democrats gave those benefits to the retirees and they’re the ones who stole the money from the pensions. So I guess it’s pretty much true that both parties are screwing the retirees. Doesn’t that just lead to the answer that Drabowski proposes? Get politicians out of the retirement business. Oh but wait, retirees actually can get taxpayers to guarantee the benefits, and they can retire with COLA and they don’t pay for healthcare…who’s getting screwed? How about the taxpayer?

  • Liberty_First

    Jealous and ignorant….

  • Don

    I know this will be hard for you brain dead Demarcate Union people to understand but the Demarcates have pretty much controlled Illinois for better than 50 years and the same thing is going on now as it has been for 50 years the more the Demarcates agree to and the more hands outs they give the more VOTES they get if you haven’t seen that then you better kept your Government job because your not smart enough to do anything on your own. Most States,City’s that Demarcates don’t have control have switched over to 401 K retirement and got Politician’s out of the buying vote business the same thing that’s been going on in DC for better than 30 years.

  • Liberty_First

    More ignorance…. switching to 401Ks (actually prohibited by tax law) would entail actually making the current payments to the fund and then social security would have to be paid. Current costs would go up while the state was trying to pay off past debts.

  • 1Johnny

    You cannot solve today’s problems with the same thinking that created it! Madigan has been the speaker of the house for decades, throwing around the Illinois taxpayer’s money. Promise after promise to get votes, and the Unions bought it hook, line and sinker. The democrats currently have a super majority in the Illinois Congress (House and Senate), so to pass legislation, they don’t even need one Republican vote.