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Misconceptions about the police and fire pension
As a citizen and the wife of an Evanston firefighter, I have become increasingly concerned about what is written and said about the current pension crisis. I would like to clear up a few misconceptions I have heard.
1. Other than a desire to serve the community, the pension offers one of the few incentives to take on a challenging and often frustrating job; Evanston police officers and firefighters serve our citizens at starting salaries well below the median income in Evanston: the pension was promised as part of their compensation. These men and women have declined their right to Social Security in favor of the pension.
2. It has been suggested to me that firefighters, as part of their compensation, should use their non-working hours to take a second job – some have even gone so far as to suggest that we organize a volunteer department. Firefighters in a dense urban environment like Evanston are highly skilled workers who train constantly, increasingly on their own time. This means, in addition to standard paramedic and fire training, Evanston firefighters are trained to handle high-rise rescues, underwater rescues, and HAZMAT emergencies, among others. It’s also important to point out that, even though they work non-traditional hours, averaged over the year, firefighters are still scheduled to serve our citizens for more than 40 hours a week, and respond to over 8,000 calls per year. For both police and firefighters, a nontraditional schedule often means spending evenings, holidays and weekends away from their families.
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While I, like everyone, wonder how this happened in the first place, I’d like to remind citizens that the City’s bills are ultimately the taxpayer’s responsibility. When citizens pressure elected officials to both increase services and reduce taxes, we put them in an impossible situation. I am reminded of our current water/sewer situation, in which maintenance was deferred until it reached a crisis point, and we now have extremely expensive water. While we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again, how or why it happened has no bearing on the fact that this bill has come due.
I think voters may be under the misapprehension that if they vote no on the upcoming referendum Tuesday, the pension budget crisis will go away. This isn't the case at all. The referendum is about one way of approaching the problem; it is asking HOW we want this bill to be paid (large increase in property taxes/reduction in services vs. a lower increase in taxes/reduction in services and the increased real estate transfer fee.)
Anonymous, I encourage you to look at the "Accountability in Pension Crisis" post. In it you will see many answers to your questions. There are very specific rules regarding how pension funds can be invested, resulting in more secure funding, but generally lower returns.
In any retirement planning, we all know that investing early on pays off significantly down the road. Just remember--you can't invest what you don't have.
Jason Hays
michele, i appreciate your efforts to clarify some of the issues surrounding the unfortunate underfunding of the police and fireman pension funds. your perspective as a spouse is especially helpful. make no mistake, the citizens of evanston greatly appreciate the outstanding service of our police and firemen. however, that is not the issue ; the issue is the underfunded status of their pension funds - there is no doubt that all police and fireman will receive their pensions which they more than earned. their pension benefits are mandated in their contracts and i believe only a bankruptcy by the city of evanston could change this, and bankruptcy is highly unlikely. the focus of the discussion should be centered on the poor oversight of the pension plan and how did we get into this mess. the community needs to have all the appropriate information to make informed decisions, government leaders need to be held accountable for their decisions or lack thereof and then we can move forward. asking the community to pay more in taxes without this information and accountability is absurd. we already live in a highly taxed community and we don't have unlimited pocket books. we need correct information, accountability from our government leaders, a thoughtful discussion, and then a plan to move forward
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