On the November Ballot, Illinois voters will be asked if they believe the Illinois Constitution should be amended to require a three-fifths majority vote in order to increase a benefit under any public pension or retirement system. We say Vote NO on the Proposed Constitutional Amendment.

This Constitutional Amendment would also require that any local collectively bargained agreement be approved by a 3/5th majority if those agreements had incentives or additional compensation increases beyond salary.

The question on the November ballot will ask, “If you believe the Illinois Constitution should not be amended to require a three-fifths majority vote in order to increase a benefit under any public pension or retirement system, you should Vote NO.”

Please Join our Effort to Defeat this Constitutional Amendment by alerting your colleagues and family members! Join us in Voting NO against the proposed Constitutional Amendment on the November Ballot.

The GEA Bargaining Team has informed the Evaluation Committee and School Board that due to the GEA Team being unable to meet until after August 15^th, we do not see how a vote on August 15th is possible nor do we think it will even be possible by September 1^st.  In addition to calendar issues there are several other concerns…

1.  The Team has not been given the most recent draft of the plan to discuss.

2.  The Team has not been able to meet to discuss any bargaining issues.

3.  There are items that have to be bargained between our two groups, which would possibly entail scheduling another meeting for the two Bargaining teams to meet together.

4.  We do not have time to meet with our entire membership by Sept 1^st to present the plan and answer their questions, so that they may make an informed vote.

The GEA Team also still has some general concerns:

1.  It is our understanding that the District 205 Board of Education is going to be asked to vote on this plan on August 13^th at the Board meeting.  We do not see how can they vote on something that has items yet to be bargained?

2.  The law and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (Section 12.7) clearly states that we have until July, 2013 to get the Plan finalized, so why does it seem like we are all being rushed into this?

3.  The first sentence of Section 12.7 of the CBA states, “The District has an approved waiver through 2013 to utilize the current Professional Development Plan/Professional Growth Plan Model;…”  As stated in our previous memo to the Evaluation committee, the GEA Team suggests that we continue using this model with the exception of utilizing the new mandated categories.

4.  The GEA Team is still concerned that there is no appeal process built into this plan.   It remains the GEA’s position that teachers should have the right to appeal a possibly unfair interpretation of evidence.

The GEA remains in support of the Evaluation Team’s over-all progress and supports their efforts in the current plan.  However, it is the GEA’s position that it is not yet complete and believes such an important issue should not be rushed into in haste.

It appears there will be no action on pensions until August, at the earliest.

The state’s top lawmakers announced Thursday that they are waiting at least five weeks to resume talks aimed at developing pension legislation.

Following a two-hour, closed-door meeting in Chicago, legislative leaders announced they remain stuck on the issue of whether the state should continue to contribute to employee pensions, or whether the cost should be shifted to local school districts.

Speaker Madigan is a proponent of the “cost shift,” saying local districts have been enjoying a “free lunch,” paid for by the state. He says decisions that determine the size of an educators’ pension, and how much the state will contribute to that pension, are made by local school boards, with the legislature having no say in the matter.

Republican legislators in particular have refused to sign on to any pension proposals that call for the shift, saying that forcing districts to take on new costs would cause a local tax increase.

Meanwhile, Gov. Quinn’s office earlier this week released balances in districts’ “rainy day” funds across the state. Though the governor claimed the money on hand was enough to cover the cost of shifting pensions to school districts, school administrators noted the great disparity in funds from district to district, pointed out that the numbers were from a year ago and argued that those numbers didn’t reflect the past year’s underfunding from the state.

The governor promised to provide additional data prior to the next leaders meeting.

Update 3:45 pm – The illinois House has adjourned until 10 Wednesday morning without taking a vote on the Senate Bill 1673, a proposal that would cut retirement benefits for active and retired employees. There was no floor vote on the pension bill following his morning’s approval by the House pensions Committee.

Word is they will try first thing in the morning.

IT’S TIME…..

SB 1673 , Amendment 3 has just passed out of committee by a vote of 3 against and 6 in favor. The bill will now go to the House floor for debate and vote by the representatives.

Last chance for you and your members to contact representatives in the Illinois House of Representatives and get them to

Vote No on SB 1673, Amendment 3.

Here are some phone numbers to help…

Rep. Moffitt (343-8000)
(217) 782-8032

Sen. LaHood (217) 782-1942)

Gov. Quinn (217-782-0244)
Russ Ullrich
GEA President
President@gea-online.org

http://www.gea-online.org

As you can tell we have a new site.  The old one was ok but a bit out dated.  I’ll be moving more items over but for now most things are here.

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