To the Editor:

The current $83 billion unfunded liability of the state’s five pension systems is a sorry situation. I feel the cause of this situation lies squarely in the laps of the decision-makers in Springfield. In 1995, Public Act 88-0593 was passed. The purpose of this act was to establish a payment schedule that should have had the pension systems 90 percent funded by the year 2045.

This was a nice idea and probably would have worked had our decision-makers followed the schedule as outlined. I feel that for the last 17 years they have been underfunding or not funding the pension system at the level outlined in Public Act 88-0593 and using these monies for other public services.