Pension Town Hall Meeting Stirs Debate

Illinois' state pension debt is currently at $95 billion — citizens discussed their ideas of how to fix that at Monday's meeting.

Passions were high at Monday night's town hall meeting on current state pension proposals. Panelists at the meeting, which was held at the Wilmette Community Center, included Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), Rep. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) and Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston).  The meeting, which was so packed that it had to be split up in to two rooms to make room for everyone, was held to discuss the Senate Bill 35 (SB35) and House Bill 98 (HB98), which both aim to end the "long, bitter impasse over pension reform at the state Capitol by combining what has been proposed by business, labor, legislators and civic groups with some new ideas," according to a hand-out passed out before the …

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Election 2011 HQ

Meet Your Candidates: Village Trustee Hopeful Mike Bailey

Wilmette-Kenilworth Patch is running a series of questionnaires with candidates running in contested races for Spring 2011 elections.

Mike G. Bailey is a Wilmette resident, father of two and has 30 years of experience in public finance. A University of Chicago Law School graduate, Bailey has pledged to be responsible, honest and open-minded to increase transparency in Wilmette's government. "I believe that a pledge of this nature is particularly important and necessary in a time of financial stress," Bailey said. Board members serve four-year terms. Three seats are open this year, and six candidates are running—Bailey, Mike Basil, Bob Bielinski, Dan Kaplan, Doug Rathe and Julie Wolf. Check out what Bailey had to say about pensions and economic development below. How would you assess the state of the village’s budget? Mike G. Bailey: The Village’s budget for fiscal year …

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