As reported in the Pantagraph on June 24, Illinois legislators, especially the moronic republicans, are once again considering raiding the state retirement systems - including the State University Retirement System, listen up ISU faculty - to meet budget shortfalls.

The state retirement systems are already very close to insolvency. State employees could lose their pensions even though the state constitution mandates them.

Write or call your state representatives about this, and ask why ideological opposition to raising the state income tax rate - already one of the lowest in the nation - is even taken seriously.

You might also ask where the stimulus money Illinois has received is going.

A warning to legislators whose jobs will soon be on the line: Listen carefully to the 5,000 people who gathered recently in Springfield to protest proposed budget cuts for essential services. The probability is that there are hundreds of thousands more with the same concerns.

Harry Deutsch

Bloomington