Tag: State Universities Retirement System
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...
The presidents and chancellors of the 14 public universities in Illinois have unanimously endorsed a six-point proposal for addressing the state’s pension funding crisis as it relates to the State Universities Retirement System (SURS), and in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders they called it “a thoughtful and responsible approach.” “We write to...
In Springfield … Last week was the deadline for bills to get out of committees in their chamber of origin, so most of the action occurred in the various committees. However, there were some significant movements on various bills related to pension reform. SB 1, sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton, as amended, is not the...
A group of Illinois university professors and administrators has released a plan to reform the retirement system for university employees. An Institute of Government and Public Affairs proposal released Monday recommends letting workers trade a portion of their guaranteed benefits for a lump-sum payment which would go into a self-managed retirement account. “Consideration of a...
In Springfield … The Illinois General Assembly reconvenes from Tuesday, Nov. 27, to Thursday, Nov. 29 and from Tuesday, Dec. 4, to Thursday, Dec. 6, for its Fall Veto Session. We also anticipate that the General Assembly will reconvene in early January 2013 for a “Lame Duck” session before the 98th Illinois General Assembly is inaugurated...
State lawmakers will meet in a special one-day session Friday to discuss potentially dramatic changes to the pension systems that serve state employees. Statehouse watchers say that Speaker of the House Mike Madigan has agreed to call HB1447 for a vote. Approved May 31 by the Illinois Senate on the final day of the spring...
In Washington, D.C. … Congress begins a five-week Summer Recess. Prior to adjourning, Congressional leaders and the White House agreed to a bi-partisan deal that will keep the government funded for six months, through March 31, 2013, at a level consistent with the 2013 level ($1.047 trillion) set forth in the Budget Control Act passed...
In Washington, D.C. … Officials of the U.S. Department of Education today unveiled the Obama administration’s college financial aid “shopping sheet,” which was developed jointly with the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The shopping sheet, while allowing individual institutions to provide customized information, provides a number of common elements regarding a student’s financial aid...
Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) introduced HB 4996 to curb the current practice of Illinois’ public universities rehiring annuitants to work while drawing a pension. This bill passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly, and the governor is expected to sign the bill over the summer. Biss, who has been actively involved in various efforts...
Pension reform bills in both the State Senate and House of Representatives failed to come up for a vote before the midnight, May 31, deadline that marks the end of the spring legislative session. “While this has been a productive legislative session, our work is not done for the people of Illinois,” Illinois Gov. Pat...
A stripped-down pension reform package absent a controversial cost-shifting provision that would have transferred responsibility for payments of normal costs of pension benefits from the state to employers (universities, school districts and community colleges) passed the House Personnel and Pension Committee for consideration by the full House Thursday. Pension reform legislation stalled yesterday due to...
In Springfield … The Illinois Senate Executive Committee voted to approve House Bill 3810, a bill that will eliminate the General Assembly Scholarship Program on Sept. 1, 2012. Senate President John Cullerton, who had picked up sponsorship of this bill, testified that this program was good overall and that it had helped many very deserving...
