From our President:

11 June 2014

AFSCME Sub-chapter 161

Dear member:

We will meet again at Ruby Tuesdays Restaurant at 5203 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Il. on Wednesday, June 18th. The meeting starts at 11 AM. Our speaker will be Jason Kay for PEOPLE, the political arm of AFSCME.

With the end of the Spring legislative session, attention will shift to the November election. While this is an off year election, it still presents us with opportunities to grow in strength and numbers.

Despite the failure to get the fair Tax Referendum on the ballot, the issue of necessary funding will come up in the veto and lame duck sessions this Fall and Winter. Because of the linkage of state funding to the services we and our families depend upon, we have to keep working for a just answer.

We are all angry at the legislature’s passage of a bad pension bill last year. We were told that drastic steps had to be taken in order to fund state services that would have been cut in order to pay pension debt. That Illinois and State government were broke. Nonsense. Illinois ranks 5th in State GDP. What is lacking is the political will to change the way we are taxed.

During this meeting, we need to discuss how we can create that will in our respective legislative districts. Many of you will have ideas based on our past actions at town hall meetings or Springfield lobby days.

We should participate in the PEOPLE program. The amount of money you contribute would be what you can afford. What we need to consider is how we can leverage our activities (in kind contributions) to convince Council 31’s political staff to use PAC monies to create that political will among our legislators when they are in Springfield. Think of this meeting as part of your senior citizenship OJT. We come to learn, share and have some fun in the process.

Sincerely,
Charles Hogan, President

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Attend a Public Hearing on a minimum wage for Chicago–click here for details.

A message from Amanda Kass, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (our speaker at the May 27 meeting):

Our analysis of the proposed FY2015 General Fund budget might be of interest. The PDF version may be viewed by clicking here. We’ll also be releasing our analysis of the new pension law in June.

To view the CTBA analysis of “The Cost of Doing Nothing” click here.

To view Two Truths and a Mystery from afscme.org, click here.

To view Friday Alerts, June 13, 2014 from Alliance for Retired Americans, click here.

To view Friday Alerts, June 6, 2014 from Alliance for Retired Americans, click here.

To view Friday Alerts, May 30, 2014 from Alliance for Retired Americans, click here.