Things to Know About the Constitutional Convention (Con Con)

On November 4th, Illinois voters will be faced with a decision to vote for or against a convention to write a new state constitution. I want to urge any reader to vote AGAINST "Con Con." Here's why:

- To hold a convention to discuss writing a new Illinois constitution will cost taxpayers between 78 and 100 million dollars. That money could better service schools in Illinois, rather than writing a new constitution that was just rewritten in the 70's.

- A couple years ago, the Illinois governor borrowed money from public teachers' pension fund and allocated that money to the Chicago bus transit system. As of right now, law requires an eventual reimbursment of the teachers' pension fund, no matter if the state has the money to pay it back or not. If a new consitution is written, the reimbursment to the teachers' pension may be dropped, saving the state a lot of money but leaving the poor educators of Illinois without their well-earned retirement money.

Con Con is an unnecessary event that Illinois does not need. A constitution written in the 1970's is considered a "fairly new" constitution that does not need revision at this time. In addition, the educators of this state deserve better than this. They work hard for little pay and little respect, and uneducated voters who randomly choose "yes" to Con Con may be condeming teachers to a scary future with little chance of any retirement whatsoever... not to mention a tax increase for all.