Teachers pension woes misdiagnosed
September 8, 2013 6:48PM
Updated: September 9, 2013 2:16AM
I want to set the record straight about the problems at the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. CTPF is a $9.5 billion plan that serves 59,000 Chicago Public School (CPS) and charter school teachers, administrators and retirees. We do not contribute to or receive Social Security benefits, so this plan is our retirement security.
CTPF operates on a simple equation: employees and employers contribute. Our fund invests revenue and pays benefits. For more than 100 years this plan was healthy.
Since 1995, CPS made reduced payments, or skipped payments altogether. Our fund lost out on $3.2 billion in revenue during this period.
While some call for reducing benefits for our retired members, the actuarial reality says otherwise: reducing benefits, besides breaking a promise, will not solve the problem. A lack of revenue created this problem. Restoring revenue will solve it.
We have many options: restore dedicated tax levy, increase taxes, refinance pension debt or eliminate funding schemes that artificially lowered historical payments. No matter which path we choose, we must restore revenue to stabilize funding for CTPF.
Jay C. Rehak, president, CTPF Board of Trustee
After 100,000 deaths in the Syrian civil war, why has this government now entered the fray after suspicions that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons? The consequences of any revolt result in the loss of both military and civilian lives and history has proven the manner of the killings don’t really matter with opposing forces. Why intervene now after so many have been killed? Where is the logic? Where is the moral high ground?
James D. Cook, Schaumburg
Destroy the chemical weapons in Syria
The only solution [in Syria] that makes us safer is to remove or destroy the chemical weapons before they fall into the hands of terrorists. There is no plan on how to do that. If Russia were a responsible member of the international community, that would be their goal. Vladamir Putin longs for the good old days of the Cold War. It makes no sense for them to let these weapons loose on the world, which is going to happen when Assad finally falls.
Michael Shepherd,
Bellwood
