IL Liberty Leaders Taking Pension Reform to the Grassroots

Liberty Leader Mike Basil recently created the grassroots organization PROillinois to address Illinois

The Illinois Policy Institute’s Liberty Leader program encourages citizens to become more actively involved in supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives for a better Illinois.

One of Illinois’s most dire problems is our out-of-control public employee pensions and Liberty Leader Mike Basil, who is also a Village of Wilmette Trustee, recently created an organization to address the issue.

Pension Reform for Illinois, or PROillinois, “was founded because our municipal pension costs are spiraling out of control under the mismanagement of the Illinois State Legislature.” Mike Basil’s effort has been joined by Kati Spaniak and Kathryn Ciesla, both Village of Northbrook Trustees.

PROillinois’s straight forward mission asks “Springfield to change the law and give local governments a choice in the retirement benefits they provide to their own employees. Specifically, PROillinois is asking that local governments be allowed to provide their own NEW employees with a 401(k) style retirement benefit, instead of the current defined benefit pension plans dictated by Springfield.”

While a PROillinois is only for new employees, the Illinois Policy Institute pension reform proposal goes further and is for both new employees and current employees going forward. For more information read the Illinois Policy Institute’s policy report Mission Possible: Fully Funding Illinois’s State Pensions While Respecting Hardworking Taxpayers.

The PROillinois plan is currently pending as an amendment to proposed bill House Bill 5576 in the Illinois House of Representatives, and is sponsored by Rep. Elizabeth Coulson.

Kudos to Mr. Basil and the PROillinois team for making a step in the right direction.