A lot of us sent Senator Tom Cross that stock email, Here is what I sent him:
This is a THIRD RAIL ISSUE.
You and Rahm have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.
“These pension funds are made up of a majority of taxpayer money, which is why it is so important that an accountable and appointed board be assembled to represent taxpayer interests.”
Once the money is in the Pension fund it belongs to the present and future pensioners.Not to the mayor and his cohorts to as their personal piggy bank.And has the past and present mayors contributed the proper amounts due to these funds.
Remember what happened to Dan Rostenkowski, that arrogant SOB slashed the Social Security Benefits of government employees. He was chased out of meetings by angry seniors. He was surrounded by government employees and thought no one would blow the whistle on his little scam with the Congressional Post Office and went to jail. Again, this is a Third Rail Issue.
Now I make this suggestion to the FOP and PB&PA.
Suggestion: Make a lot of noise down in Springfield but don’t go down there to just say “NO! WE DON’T WANT THIS!” From what I understand, and I do not know every thing about it the New York City Police Department Pension System is in a lot better shape than ours. It is funded 69% while ours is only 40%. All of their board members are police and all are elected by police offices and pensioners.
If we go down there and just say NO to this Cross bill the best we could do is maintain the status quo. Well the status quo is not that great. Look at what Daley and his band of thieves have done in the past with the system the way it is. Remember when Daley wanted and got us to forgive a $25 million debt owed our Pension Fund, of our tax money to adjust the post 20 year of employment formula. Our biggest problem with this fund is the city does not pay it’s bills and get to steal from the fund through bad deals they couldn’t put through anywhere else.
I suggest that we have our FOP and PB&PA lawyers quickly look at the NYPD plan and rewrite it for us.Then go down to Springfield and say we don’t want the Cross plan we want this. It is based on the premise that once the city pays it pension obligation it has no more right to that money just like when it pays any other bill. Then we deliver the draft of this bill to our State Senators and Representatives in Springfield with a real stern warning about who they really work for.
Rahm will pressure them to ignore it and go for the Cross bill. But the fact that we stated we really want something else and that the real question,” Whose Money Is It?” may eventually have to be answered in court.
If we get this question into a Federal Court, outside of Cook County we probably could win such a case. But we need to ask for something that removes the city’s influence from our control over our money PERIOD.
P.S. to the above. This Tom Cross bill would hand over control of the Pension Fund to Rahm Emanuel as Mayor of Chicago. Now who in their right mind would want him in their pocket? There are thousands of men and women who after years of honorable service to the citizens of Chicago rely on their personal investment in that pension fund for their income. Many of those people no longer live in the city of Chicago and therefore can no longer vote for Mayor of Chicago who has all that power over their income and investments. Is this not an issue like “No Taxation Without Representation”? All of the members of the pension board should be voted on by the present and future retirees. What jury outside of Cook County wouldn’t side with that, but we need to go on record asking for it.
Sam Cozzo