In a scene that sounded a bit more like something out of an episode of NBC's "Community" than a major political effort to save a state's precarious pension system, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn definitely went for the unusual this weekend.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Governor's new public pitch for a comprehensive round of pension reform in the state came in the form of an somewhat incomplete social media strategy, a room full of anxious children with megaphones and even a new cartoon mascot for the whole mess: "Squeezy the Pension Python."
The surreal scene was at least a defining moment in a drawn-out retirement system fiasco which now sees the state's public pensions underfunded by almost $100 billion.
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After an emergency meeting of state leaders in August failed to produce any new concessions or strategies to try to deal with the state's looming pension issues, Quinn took to the stage Sunday - surrounded by children – to offer a glimpse of his three-months-in-the-making public awareness campaign.
Those talking points, which include the aforementioned cartoon snake, will be part of an online campaign produced by the governor's office, with a website (www.ThisIsMyIllinois.com) containing a folksy video starring the governor, outlining the history of pensions since pre-Christian times, and the more recent crisis in funding.
Quinn's announcement Sunday was accompanied by a group of elementary school-aged children shouting "Thanks in advance," a phrase the Democratic governor hopes to associate with a push to make the state's pension system workable and effective.
"This is not going to be solved just by the (politicians) in Springfield," Quinn said, in a news conference. "The people of Illinois are the heart and soul of our government … and many times, citizens are ahead of legislators when it comes to demanding reform. We need to make sure those citizens get the facts they need about an important issue. I have fundamental faith in the common sense of the everyday people of Illinois."
Critics immediately countered that the new site does not actually offer any recommendations on how the pension problems can be corrected, though officials including the State House Republican leader Tom Cross, said that they see the campaign as at least being a first step in raising public awareness of the looming pension crisis.
"I am still not sure that the public has accepted the facts and understands the ramifications of not doing pension reform," Cross said. "And what I mean by that is, if we do not do pension reform soon, not only may we not have a pension system, we may not have enough money to fund education or build roads and fix schools."
Earlier this year, state lawmakers considered options to allow current state employees to keep compounded cost-of-living increases for their future benefits but lose state-funded retiree health insurance and the ability to include their salary increases into the benefits.
And there's still considerable opposition to the notion of shifting the costs of rural teachers' pension costs onto local school districts, rather than the state, significantly raising property tax costs.
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