An unconstitutional diminishment of teacher healthcare payments in Illinois.

In the last newsletter I published the press release from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association (IRTA) announcing their intention to bring a law suit to stop the diminishment of funding to the retired teachers healthcare benefit.

I use the word diminishment intentionally.

The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled on several occasions that public employee pension benefits cannot be diminished or impaired. The words, cannot be diminished or impaired, are written right there in the Illinois Constitution.

Not to get all legal here, but in Kanerva v Weems there was a constitutional challenge to reducing state contributions toward health insurance costs for retired public pension system members and their survivors.

The Court held that the reduction was unconstitutional.

The justices ruled that the Pension Protection Clause protects more than the pension annuity.  It protects all benefits of membership in a pension system, including health insurance benefits.

In another case concerning the public pensions of the town of Harvey, Illinois, the Court ruled that public pension must be funded.

So what happened with our healthcare benefit that led the IRTA to go to court?

Going back over nearly two decades a state agency known as Central Management Services (CMS) would make a funding request to the Illinois Teacher Retirement System (TRS) board of trustees to fund our health insurance at a level equal to or no more than 5% over the previous year.

This year CMS, a state agency responsible to Governor Pritzker, made a request for funding hugely lower than last year. The amount should have been around $130 million. CMS asked for $99 million. These funds come from active teachers and matching state funds.

Amazingly, the TRS trustees agreed to the diminished amount with only the elected representatives of retirees voting no.

Half of the TRS board are political appointments. Two are elected by retirees. Other teacher representatives who voted yes represent the state’s teacher unions.

I have been told that when Attorney General Kwame Raoul was asked for a legal opinion he suggested that the diminishment was questionable.

It’s not questionable. It’s illegal.

His would be more of a careful political response than a legal opinion.

When the IRTA had their actuary look at the numbers it appears that if the healthcare funding cuts become a reality, our healthcare benefit funding will dry up in two to four years.

Our doctor bills will not be paid.

In talking to IRTA executive director Jim Bachman this morning he told me that to him this was less about funding than it was about the health and safety of retired teachers.

We are in the middle of a pandemic.

What is wrong with these people?

That is an important thing to remind Governor Pritzker. After all. CMS is his baby.