I am writing in support of the Fair Retirement and Recruitment Act (SB 2 and HB 2711) Tier 2 falls well short of providing a stable retirement. Because many Illinois public employees, which include firefighters, corrections officers, educators, nurses, and other public employees, aren’t eligible for Social Security, they must receive retirement benefits at least equivalent to Social Security benefits, as determined by a “Safe Harbor” test. There is widespread concern that the Tier 2 benefit is so low that it violates Safe Harbor, leaving the state vulnerable to a potentially expensive lawsuit. Tier 2 as a whole is broken, so we must ensure that the whole system is fixed, not just Safe Harbor.

Tier 2 is unfair. Public workers on Tier 2 do the same job as those on Tier 1, and pay the same amount toward their pension, but get less. Many Tier 2 participants actually pay more into the system than their pension is worth.