Presidents and chancellors at public universities and colleges across the state reached an agreement in principal with House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and House leaders Thursday for public universities to assume the employer share of employee pension costs beginning in FY2015.
The hope is that Thursday’s agreement might help break up the logjam in Springfield...
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Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to you today to update you with some very important information relative to the very fluid pension debate in the General Assembly in Springfield.
Thursday afternoon, the Illinois Senate approved an amended version of Senate Bill 2404, a union-backed proposal sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton that offers Tier I employees...
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The Illinois House has approved a comprehensive pension-reform measure sponsored by House Speaker Michael Madigan by a vote of 62-51 Thursday afternoon.
Senate Bill 1 is designed to close a $97 billion deficit that hangs over the state’s pension plans. Underfunding for decades has left the pension systems short of what they need.
The bill would...
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The Illinois House Personnel and Pensions Committee passed a pension reform plan put forth by Speaker Michael J. Madigan by a 9-1 vote, clearing the way for the pension reform bill to be called before the full House today.
Madigan’s plan calls for employees to pay 2 percent more of salary toward their retirement plans....
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In Springfield …
Both the House and the Senate are in session this week in Springfield. Several bills of interest to the NIU community advanced in the legislative process during last week’s Senate action.
SB 1900 (Biss) passed the Senate unanimously and has been assigned to the House Higher Education Committee for consideration.
It requires that, by...
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Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan filed an amendment to a comprehensive pension-reform package passed by the Senate last month that caps the salary on which a pension can be based and limits annual cost-of-living increases.
The House Personnel & Pensions Committee is scheduled to consider the legislation at an 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 1, meeting.
The 277-page...
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In Springfield …
Last Friday – April 19 – was the deadline for House bills to be voted out of the House to the Senate. Thursday, April 25, is the last day for Senate bills to be voted out of the Senate to the House.
The House of Representatives will not meet this week, but the Senate...
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Born Feb. 2, 1945, State Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hicnkley, grew up on a farm near Maple Park, Ill.
He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication at the University of Illinois, where he met his wife, Mary. They married in 1968. She is the associate dean of the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences.
As...
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Born June 29, 1957, in Chicago, State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, was raised and educated in Rockford, where he and his wife of 28 years, Shirley, raised their two children.
Syverson currently serves in the role as assistant Republican leader in the Illinois Senate as well as the Republican spokesman for the Senate Health and...
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In Springfield …
As the Illinois General Assembly struggles to deal with the massive backlog of unpaid bills, a measure is moving through the House of Representatives, supported by Speaker Madigan, which would authorize the sale of $2.5 billion of general obligations bonds.
Up to $2 billion of the bond proceeds would go Medicaid providers, allowing...
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NIU in the News
