Out of SURSvice

EAST PEORIA ― While students are often at ICC to discover how to start their careers, changes in the state’s retirement system has left some ICC employees with this semester to decide how they want to end theirs.

Late last year, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law, Senate Bill 0001, that was intended to change the pension system for Illinois state employees in a way that would help lower the state’s deficit. An unintended consequence is that the law has been incentivising immediate retirement among state college and university employees.

The State Universities Retirement System (SURS), which manages the pension system for Illinois state colleges, interpreted the law as stating that employees who don’t retire before June 31, 2014 will suffer reductions to the value of their retirement.

Marti Bloodshaw, vice president of human resources at ICC, said that while this does affect ICC employees, she hasn’t seen a rush of people wanting to retire. In fact, at 17, the number of retires so far this year is on track with last year’s numbers.

“There are other factors that make people decide whether or not to retire, regardless of how much money you are going to get,” said Bloodshaw.

There are some employees, though, who are taking this bill seriously. Daine Weber and Tom Pilat are both retiring from the Math, Science and Engineering department after a combined employment of almost 60 years at ICC. Weber is retiring due to the legislation while Pilat is just “65 and ready.”

Now, the state is in discussions to determine is SURS is misinterpreting the way the law affects state pension.

ICC is hosting SURS consultations on May 13 in 213B to help employees determine their retirement options.

Meanwhile, Bloodshaw suggests students  “invest immediately in a 401(k) plan or stock or something while you are young.”