After reading Dawn Rhodes’s Sunday Tribune article, “Brain drain in state grows,” the problems of Illinois continue to multiply; however, one important issue seems to be at the center of every obstacle. Al Bowman, executive director of the state’s higher education board, told the Tribune that “in the $3.4 billion budget request the education board sent to the Illinois legislature this year, half of the money would go to paying pensions.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner and candidate J.B. Pritzker, in their infinite wisdom, have yet to present a solution that will take the citizens of Illinois and future generations off the hook for the growing public pension debt. Either a governor will have the guts to propose amending the Illinois Constitution, or Illinois taxpayers will continue paying ridiculous tax rates or flee the state.
Will a proposed program grow, sustain or somehow decrease the pension debt? You see my fellow Illinoisans, every conversation, idea or can’t-miss project boils down to the effect on Illinois pensions. And unfortunately, our gubernatorial candidates will continue to side-step the elephant in the room.
— Mark Zavagnin, La Grange
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