Average pensioner left out in cold

For 30 years I worked at the Elgin Mental Health Center and paid the state for my retirement. It was not a well-paying job but I worked for a promised pension and health insurance, paid by the state, which were union negotiated.

I find now that my payments were never used in the pension fund for the state due to legislators in charge. What people don’t see is that the average state pensioner is not that big buck person that the newspapers always write about. It is the average employee who makes about $25,000 a year.

Recently legislators took away my previous union negotiated health insurance and now they want to freeze my cost of living. I don’t think it is fair to try to balance the budget on the backs of retired state employees who paid on their retirement for years and had agreements that were union negotiated.

Again, the average state pension is not that $180,000 teacher or former politician that you constantly write about but the $25,000 a year pensioner who already has huge deductibles on their health insurance. Why do you not write about this pensioner, who is the vast majority in Illinois, and is being hurt deeply and betrayed by their employers who paid in health insurance premiums when promised at retirement that they would be covered?

Now you want to break our backs even more because the money I already paid into my retirement was not allocated by the big politicians.

Please print something about the average state retiree that gives a true picture to the politicians who are breaking our backs. Also, give a realistic picture to the people of Illinois about the average pensioner. Interesting that the legislators voting on these issues are not being touched by these changes in regard to their pensions and health insurance. However, who says life has to be fair.

Dennis M Dee

Elgin