July 16, 2015 Presentation to CTPF by David
Peterson, RTAC President
President Rehak, Director
Burbridge,
Trustees and guests
Today, I am here wearing two hats. First, as an annuitant and
secondly as the current
President of the Retired Teachers
Association of Chicago.
As an annuitant for
over twenty years, I have watched as the
level of funding has
dropped from 100% to the current 51%, I
have seen our health care subsidy
diminish to 50% as
the cost of coverage grows
each
year. I have witnessed the continued failure of
the
Chicago Public Schools, the State of Illinois, and the City of
Chicago
to provide the revenue required to meet the
Chicago
Board of Education’s employer pension obligations.
As President of
RTAC, I have heard from our members,
by email, phone, and letter. They share
my concerns and expect RTAC to fulfill its
mission to challenge CTPF, the Chicago Board of
Education, the State of Illinois, and the City
of Chicago. We have dedicated our
lives to educating Chicago’s youth and we deserve to have fiscal security
in retirement.
Although your stewardship of the Fund
has
been exemplary
and the return on investment
has been excellent, you, as
a Board, have often noted that Chicago’s and Illinois’ pension
problems emanate from long term inadequate funding.
It
is not a benefit problem; it is
a revenue problem.
In April 2015, Chicago
Board of Education
President David Vitale indicated that
CPS
owes the Chicago Teachers
Pension Fund in excess
of $9.5 billion. In
1995, we witnessed and expressed our organization’s serious concern when Mayor Daley persuaded the Illinois
General Assembly to divert our dedicated pension tax
levy to the Chicago
Public Schools operating fund. From that point forward we have observed ten
years of no pension contributions
from CPS followed by ‘pension holidays’ and diminished
payments. These actions have
deprived the Chicago Teachers
Pension Fund of
more than $3 billion.
In effect, all
of these defaults by CPS have subsidized the
Chicago Public Schools to
meet its operating expenses to
the
detriment of the Chicago Teachers
Pension Fund.
This
cannot continue. The most recent attempt of
the Chicago Board of
Education and
the City of Chicago
to
“ klck
the can down the road “
was
viewed as yet another attempt to use CTPF
for its purposes.
This attempt was
whole heartedly opposed by our members.
The
termination of negotiations was a
source of relief to
us.
I know that RTAC will continue
to ally itself with you as
we seek to ensure
stable revenue. RTAC will also
continue to oppose those that seek to
continue diverting and/or repurposing the Chicago
Teachers Pension Fund’s resources as an unrestricted source for
their revenue needs.