Community members assembled Monday to hear a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution requiring a three-fifths majority vote to increase a benefit of any public pension or retirement system.

Six panelists gathered at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library to speak to the community about Amendment 49, which will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The panel was made up of State Sen. Dale Righter of the 55th Legislative District; Alan Baharlou of the EIU Annuitants; Charleston Mayor John Inyart; Jim Littleford, the superintendent of the Charleston Unit School District; David Kuetemeyer, the financial consultant of the Charleston Unit School District; and Corrine P. D-Joyner of the Coles County League of Women Voters.

The panel was cosponsored by the League of Women Voters and the EIU Annuitant Association.

Amendment 49 requires a three-fifths majority vote of each chamber of the General Assembly and governing bodies of any unit of local government in order to increase a benefit for a public pension or retirement system.

Righter spoke for the majority of the panel about his ideas surrounding the amendment and took questions from other panel members and the audience.

“Illinois is wrestling with a serious problem in its public pension systems that cover elementary and secondary education, higher education, judges, members of the General Assembly and state employees,” he said.

In Summer 2013, Righter said those systems will face an unfunded liability estimate of about $93 billion.

“That will be the highest unfunded liability in the nation,” he said.

“In searching for answers, the leaders of the majority party in Springfield put together this amendment, which says that neither the General Assembly or any local body can do so unless it votes to do so by at least a three-fifths majority.”

Each of the panel members expressed their viewpoints on the amendment, and, in the end, two panel members were in favor of the amendment and the other four were against it.

Kuetemeyer said he will also be voting no because he believes the major intention of the bill is to draw attention away from the lack of responsibility of the state legislature to make their payments to the retirement systems for many years.

“The increase in benefits only accounts for 10 percent of unfunded liability,” he said. “It’s the other 90 percent that really concerns people, so I think this whole thing is a smokescreen.”

D-Joyner said she, as a member of the League of Women Voters, will vote no on the proposed amendment based on the concept that the current amendment should be fixed and a new one should not be instated.

Baharlou said he will vote no on the amendment as well.

“Vote no, because this time the power is not ours; it is (the General Assembly’s),” he said.

Righter said he will be voting yes on the amendment because he believes the amendment will help the situation from getting worse.

“I don’t see how this affects the current constitutional provision at all with regards to public pensions because I think those issues stand on their own,” he said. “At a time when this state is bleeding in so many ways, this is a way to help slow down the bleeding in one area and I’m going to support it.”

Littleford said he will be voting no based on a lack of trust of Illinois’ legislative leaders.

“I think this is a 700-word constitutional amendment that is wordy and cloudy at best and can be interpreted in different ways,” he said.

Inyart ended the final opinions by saying he would support the amendment and vote yes to adopt it.

“I don’t think it fixes the problem, but it gives some tools to make it not get worse,” he said.

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.