McHenry Times

Joining 50 other legislators who have declined state-funded pensions, 32nd state Senate District candidate Craig Wilcox pledged last month to refuse a pension if elected in November.

“Someday soon, I hope to be able to say that McHenry County will have zero legislators and zero county elected officials participating in any state pension program,” Wilcox said in a press release. “There is a very likely possibility that every legislator representing McHenry County either will have already declined the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) pension or will have promised to decline the pension.”

Wirepoints.com, an online economic policy journal, formulated the no-pension pledge in response to news that GARS is only 15 percent funded and requires an annual taxpayer bailout to remain solvent.

Mary Mahady

“The problem is that the highest-paid lawmakers are often the ones with the most lucrative private-sector jobs,” Wirepoints stated. “It’s not fair that these politicians — these part-time public servants — receive a guaranteed retirement from taxpayers who have no guarantee themselves.”

Wilcox, a retired Air Force colonel, said public servants relying on a poorly funded state pension system set a bad example.

“For those graduating college to become teachers, or graduating police academy ... how do we tell them that we expect them to enter into a pension system that has every likelihood of being insolvent by the time they choose to enter into retirement,” Wilcox said. “We must change the path that Illinois is on.”

Wilcox faces Mary Mahady for the District 32 Senate seat. The district includes Lake and McHenry counties, and the cities of Crystal Lake, Harvard, Marengo, McHenry and Woodstock.