Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) warns that the financial meltdown in Harvey is just the harbinger of things to come across the state.
“It’s the canary in the coal mine,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette, referring to Harvey being forced to lay-off as many as 30 police officers and firefighters because of mounting pension debt. “Harvey may be the first city to experience this tragedy but it’s almost certainly not the last.”
In Harvey, several media outlets reported even more pink slips could be coming after a recent court decision mandated that city officials must now make good on pension payments they can longer afford and have not adequately funded for more than a decade.
Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield)
According to Wirepoints.com, approximately two-thirds of the state’s 651 pension funds were underfunded as recently as 2016, with all those delinquent municipalities now potentially subject to also having funds garnished.
“We need the kind of pension reform in this state I’ve been pushing,” Batinick, running for re-election in the 97th District in November’s general election, said. “It would be a start to getting this state turned around in the right direction.”
Batinick said state lawmakers handling of the whole pension crisis continues to amaze and confuse him.
“We recently passed a couple pension sweeteners in Springfield and I can’t for the life of me understand why,” he said.
Batinick recently voiced his support for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s push for a full and balanced budget, arguing that he fears where the state might end up without such critically needed legislation.
Without such legislation, Batinick said, he thinks the state will continue to struggle with its mass out-migration problem, and more and more people will come to the conclusion that Illinois no longer offers them the best path forward.
The 97th District includes all or parts of Oswego, Plainfield and Shorewood.
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