Quad Cities' Republican State Representative Rich Morthland met Monday with local education leaders to discuss Governor Quinn’s plan on pension reform.
"Because the governor wants to press and push to have pension costs pushed down to local school districts,” Morthland says. “Would that happen, that would be horrible for local tax payers because they would have to pick up that bill."
Morthland says the governor’s reorganization is based on inflated numbers and reserves and says the incorrect math will come back to haunt local taxpayers and our school districts.
"Potentially if the schools can't raise the additional property taxes there might be more teacher layoffs, more classroom closures.”
Rockridge School District Superintendent, Chester Lien told news that Illinois’ ongoing budget issues have hurt his district and new cuts that forcing them to dip into their reserves could hurt even more.
“We want to create the best education environment for students as possible,” Lien says. “It’s becoming very difficult to do that.”
No decisions have been officially made with the pension reform issue. The governor signed the state’s budget over the weekend.