train to Chi-cago and take either taxi or bus to the Field Museum. Our own member Happie Datt will meet us at the informa-

tion desk and lead us through a presentation on the special exhibition, brought to us by the Victoria & Albert Museum of London. Chi-cago is the last stop on this tour after which it returns to the V&A, London.

After the tour, we will take bus/taxi to State Street for luinch, then return by the express train.

For those who are not Field Museum mem-bers, purchase the discounted discovery pass available to groups of 10 or more that allows entry to all permanent exhibits and one special exhibition for $20.75. For more information, contact Ann Grant at annlgrant@comcast.net or 847-234-2782. Reservations must be made by December 26.

Through stunning ob-jects—includ-ing beautiful paintings and costumes, fabu-lous jewelry and weapons, and a golden throne—this exhibition explores the concept of kingship in India and illuminates the world of the maharajas and their extraordinarily rich culture. These are the objects they used, com-missioned, collected, and loved and through which they realized their multifaceted—and often conflicting—role as military and politi-cal ruler, religious leader, and cultural patron. Beginning in the early 1700s as the power of the Mughal Empire in India waned, the exhibi-tion traces the shift in political control to strong regional powers, then colonization by Great Britain in 1858 ending with the emergence of the modern, independent nation in 1947.

Open to friends and spouses! Sign up for a group tour on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 for this Field trip. We will take the 8:21am Metra

LEAGUE LINESLeague of Women Voters of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area

DECEMBER 2012

MAHARAJA: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts Field Museum, January 8, 2013

Inside this issue:

Co-Presidents’ Letter

Announcements

Pension Program Provides Perspective

Membership Kickoff Recap

LMLWV Annual Meeting

Holiday Luncheon a Success!

Voter Service Report

LWVIL Highlights

LWVUS Highlights

Calendar

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OMG ... GMOs! Learn more Sunday, February 3a demand for more naturally produced food.

We all want to eat healthy and provide safe and nutritious meals to our families. Hearing terms such as organic, natural, locally sourced, sustainable, and GMO just makes your head spin!

How do we sort all this out? Well, we’re going to try. So if you eat, or know anyone who does … please join us!

Watch your emails and LWV-LF/LB website (www.lwv-lflb.org) for more information.

Bill Kurtis, acclaimed journalist, conservation-ist, and rancher, will share his insights on the topic with us. We’ve all heard the expression “You are what you eat.” But, what exactly are we eating? With the advent of agricultural genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, do we know what we’re consuming and how it could be affecting our health?

Everyone from doctors to environmental-ists, teachers to farmers, are concerned with how our food is affecting our health. Grocery chains like Whole Foods and Sunset are seeing

Bill Kurtis will speak about agricultural methods and our foods on February 3.

PAGE 2 LEAGUE LINES

Dear fellow Leaguers,

The autumn has been more than busy! We kicked off our 2012-13 year with a membership reception at Susan Garrett’s lovely home in September. Accompany-ing the socializing and refreshments was a program, Women in Government, which featured four of our members in local, county, and state positions. Susan Garrett, Roycealee Wood, Peg Deter-man, and Carol Russ related interesting stories of how they became involved in government. We need to find more women to serve and to help make major policy decisions!

In October, we provided two major candidate forums. The first one was held on Oct. l4 at Lake Forest High School. We pulled off a major coup, as our de-bate was the only live meeting that both 10th District Congressional candidates agreed to attend. Over 600 people and numerous media watched, listened, and questioned Bob Dold and Brad Schnei-der. Their debate was followed by the Illinois General Assembly candidates. The final debate of the day was for four different Lake County Board seats.

A week later we hosted another forum. It was held at the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff

Senior Center. Candidates for four Lake County Administrative offices partici-pated. With the Lake County State’s At-torney office garnering so much negative national attention, the race for a new State’s Attorney drew much interest. Candidates for Coroner, Clerk of the Circuit Court, and Recorder of Deeds also took part. Ann Grant and Mary Jane Brady with a group of many volun-teers made both forums run smoothly.

On Nov. 1, we invited our communi-ties to learn more about Illinois pub-lic pensions, some of the problems and possible solutions. Speakers were Amanda Kass, from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, and Robert Riley, a partner with Robbins Schwartz, a law firm that specialized in educa-tion and municipal law. Two salient points were made: 1) It is not a pension problem but rather a state fiscal problem that has operated for over fifty years, for the state has been dipping into the Pen-sion Funds to pay its bills. 2) Tier two for new teachers is not only unfair to career teachers but will discourage career teachers from teaching in Illinois. That informational program was followed on Nov. 8, at Tracy Burns’ home for a very interesting and productive consen-

sus meeting, the results of which were sent to the state league to conclude our participation in its study.

In December we had our Holiday Luncheon, and in January we have scheduled both another fun activity and a serious program. On Jan. 8, our own Happie Datt will give a personal tour of the Maharajah exhibit at the Field Museum. Sunday, February 3, Bill Kurtis will be our speaker for a program on Water and Food Sustainability. This follows a related program from last year, “Our Water in Peril.”

We have much to anticipate in the com-ing months. In February we will enjoy our annual Valentine’s Day/Program Planning Tea. If you would like to help determine what issues our League will address in 2013-2014, be sure to attend. There also may be some contested races at the municipal level in the spring. At some point, the League will be address-ing campaign finance reform, fiscal policy, health care, and possibly gun control.

Let us know what issues interest you and how you would like to help. We wish you a happy holiday season.

—Jane and Mary

Letter from the Co-Presidents

NEW MEMBERS

Please welcome the following new mem-bers to LWV-LFLB:

Kathleen Conlon-Wasik, Grayslake Suzanne Kinnaird, Mundelein Kathy O’Hara, Lake Bluff Jacqueline Parochka, Gurnee Steven Potsic, Lake Bluff Lori Reszutek, Lake Forest Dianne Schleeper, Round Lake

MODERATOR TRAINING

After taking a breather from all the debates this season, consider becom-ing a moderator or just brushing up on your technique at a Moderator Training

session: Saturday, January 19, 2013 10:00 to Noon Trainer: Robin LaBedz LWVIL Offices, 332 S. Michigan, Ste 525 Email your RSVP by 12/31/12 to voterservice@lwvil.org

SAVE THE DATE

LWVIL Issues Briefing and Workshops are scheduled for Saturday, February 9, 2013 at the University Center in Chi-cago. All members are welcome at this day-long event; registration forms will be mailed to members and included in the January ENews.

CONVENTION 2013: 100 Years of Vot-ing: Power, Influence, Change

Mark your calendars now for the LWVIL June 7-9 biennium convention taking place in Bloomington-Normal. The convention will be held at Bloom-ington-Normal Marriott Hotel & Con-ference Center 201 Broadway Street, Normal, conveniently located within walking distance of the Bloomington-Normal Amtrak station.

Announcements

DECEMBER 2012

Those pension guys still have their pants down around their ankles, and on No-vember 1st we got to take a closer look. It wasn’t pretty. Co-sponsored by the LWV LF/LB and AAUW, the program featured speakers Robert E. Riley, an education and municipal specialist and partner at Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton, Taylor, Ltd.; and Amanda Kass, research and policy specialist, pensions and local government from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Both provided perspective about Illinois’ public pension crisis, its causes and the possible constitutional roadblocks we may encounter in reform efforts.

Here’s the skinny. Illinois doesn’t have a pension benefits problem. It has a debt problem. Illinois’ flawed tax policy and irresponsible fiscal practices - Illinois continues to borrow from employee pension plans by not contributing its share - have led to increasing unfunded liabilities. Unfunded pension liabilities are created when current assets are less than the present value of total benefits promised to public sector employees. When a state under funds its liabilities, taxpayers are on the hook for the differ-ence.

Illinois has five employee pension systems: the Judges’ Retirement System (JRS), the Teachers’ Retirement System

(TRS), the State University Retirement System (SURS), the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS), and the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS). They are all woefully under funded, but they are not under funded because employee contributions are lacking. Public employees contribute between 4% and 11.5% of their annual salary to their pensions. None, with the exception of some SERS employees, contribute or collect social security. Illi-nois’ unfunded liabilities are due to lack of adequate EMPLOYER contributions.

Article XIII, Section 5, Pension and Re-tirement Rights of the Constitution of Illinois states: “Membership in any pen-sion or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumen-tality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits

of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”

According to Mr. Riley, there are two schools of thought regarding the ability of the legislature to reduce the pension formulas. Both use the seemingly plain language of the pension clause to argue their case. One school of thought, pro-mulgated by Eric Madiar, Chief Legal Counsel to Illinois Senate President, John Cullerton, and Parliamentarian of the Illinois State Senate believes that it is unconstitutional to reduce pension benefits for current employees. The other, put forth by The Commercial Club of Chicago and Sidley Austin, LLP argues that although the legislature can-not change the pension benefits earned through current employees’ past service, it can change their pension benefits based on their future service.

What will it take to fix our public pen-sion woes? Mr. Riley believes the legis-lature is likely to look for solutions that are not vulnerable to legal challenges. Ms. Kass believes that the state must ad-dress its debt problem by: 1. Redesign-ing the funding schedule and 2. Increas-ing taxes. However the state chooses to tackle the problem, one thing we know for sure is until those pension guys pull up their pants, Illinois taxpayers won’t be able to look at anything else.

PAGE 3

Pension Program Provides Perspective

Amanda Kass, Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, Joan Kaltsas, moderator, and Robert Riley, partner with Robbins Schwartz, speakers at the Illinois Public Pensions program

PAGE 4 LEAGUE LINES

Women in Government: Membership Kickoff Reception

The dynamos at the Lake Michigan League always plan a lively agenda for the annual meeting. Even the drive to Michigan City from here provides the opportunity to ponder an appropriate “lake ethic.” Our tidy leafy neighbor-hoods, green with lake water give way to robust Chicago whose river runs backward. Then it’s on the steel mills, a lakeside industry on a scale that beggars belief, and is nestled into wetlands and waterbirds. All that is cheek to cheek with fabulous sandy shores, a globally rare dune and swale community.

Our meeting city, Michigan City, Indiana, is built right into the sand. Alas our meeting hotel was not, but it looked like heaven after a day tromp-

ing around Gary’s steel mills. Our tour group was a sight as we climbed the catwalks of the 84” hot strip mill, a facility that rolls enormous glowing steel slabs into coiled stock resembling giant rolls of toilet paper 7’ in diameter.

Friday night’s welcome dinner featured speak-ers. Sewage overflow was fascinating, trust me. When the speaker is Jeanette Neagu, it’s like a revival meeting.

Lake Michigan LWV Annual Meeting Report

continued on page 5

On a lovely September afternoon, League members and guests packed Susan Garrett’s sunroom to kick-off the upcoming year of activities. A panel discussion about government service by four of our members was the highlight of the membership reception.

With 14 years in the Illinois General Assembly and her upcoming retirement, Senator Garrett reminisced about some interesting and humorous antidotes, including a suggestion by Mika Brzezin-ski, from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, that

Susan write a book.

Roycealee Wood, with over 40 years of education experience, had a lot of chal-lenges to recount. However, these have not daunted her enthusiasm, and she looks forward to continuing to serve.

Peg Determan explained how the caucus system in Lake Forest works, and how difficult it has been to involve women. She urged us to volunteer for one of the many boards or commissions.

Carol Russ continued the discussion

explaining some differences with the Lake Bluff caucus, and her own tour of duty as an appointed member to the Ar-chitectural Board of Review. Although Carol wore a hard hat, it had nothing to do with her governmental position, but rather because she had just returned from the Lake Michigan League of Women Voters Annual meeting. While there, she had taken a fascinating tour of US Steel plant in Gary. (see her ar-ticle in this newsletter)

Although the afternoon passed too quickly, everyone departed buoyed by refreshments and conversation. We thank Susan for her warm hospital-ity and our speakers for their time and work. The consensus was there should be more women in government!

Guest speakers Carol Russ, Roycealee Wood, and Peg Determan, with host Susan Garrett (and Co-Presi-dent Jane Partridge in the background) at the Membership Kick-Off reception.

Carol Russ and other League members at Lake Michigan LWV tour of U.S. Steel

DECEMBER 2012 PAGE 5

Lake Michigan LWV Annual Meeting Report (continued)Suburbanites should be familiar with the cause of CSO’s (combined sewage overflows). Our impervious surfaces prevent rain water from percolating into the soil gradually. Instead the rains rapidly overwhelm our treatment tanks’ capacities, and untreated waters of all types are discharged directly into the lake.

A long-term water concern globally is the depletion of ground water, a criti-cal issue for areas not blessed with our freshwater lake. We may feel lucky, but if there is one thing the Lake Michi-gan League would like us to remem-ber, it’s that Lake Michigan is largely non-renewable. The Great Lakes basin replenishes itself by only 1% a year. If

the “diversions,” or withdrawals of wa-ter, exceed this amount the lakes must shrink.

The 1900 Chicago River diversion, which flows out of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, remains a sore point. Most of the diversions of lake water, including the river, are legally okay because they are officially grandfathered into international water pacts. But none of the Illinois communities taking lake water currently meet the return flow requirement that will bind future users.

The Lake Michigan LWV meeting wrapped with a hike on the Crescent City lakefront near Mount Baldy, a liv-ing dune 125 feet tall that moves 4 or 5 feet each year. Next year’s meeting is

likely to be held lakeside at the Blue Harbor Re-sort in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on October 16 and 17. If current talks come to fruition the Lake Michi-gan League will jointly conference next year with the 8th biennial State of Lake Michigan and the 13th Great Lakes Beach Association. Activities will include the customary great speakers and field trips, also beach bonfires and kayaking. And who knows - maybe even surfing.

—Carol Russ

The Holiday Luncheon was a wonderful success and provided some needed break time after all our hard work. With the elections and so many League and other activities, there hadn’t been much time to socialize. But the luncheon provided

an opportunity for many of our snow bird members to chat before leaving for the winter, while others discussed plans for the new year.

Everyone enjoyed the entertainment provided by Jenny Riddle, dramatic

book reviewer. Her perfor-mance was top-notch. Jenny depicted four famous first la-dies using historical facts with touches of humor. And then, she surprised her audience by topping off her performance with a rousing song.

Good company, good food, good times, and good books from Lake Forest Book Store! What more could one want for a few hours! (Watch for pictures in the Forest & Bluff Magazine.) Thanks go to Linda Bartmes, Liz Bradner, Leigh Ann Charlot, and Lisa Dietrich.

Holiday Luncheon a Success

Joan Kaltsas, Susan Lincoln, and June Luvisi

Dramatic book reviewer Jenny Riddle with Co-President Jane Partridge

Trude Roselle and Abbie Fassnacht

Marilyn Shineflug, Bev Nelson, and Carol Russ

PAGE 6 LEAGUE LINES

Since we just celebrated Thanksgiving, we decided to make a Top Ten list of things we were thankful for this year. Here they are:

1. Candidates who returned their con-sent forms and questionnaires on time.

2. Candidates who arrived at debates at least 20 minutes before the time they were scheduled to appear.

3. Candidates who spoke into the mi-crophones.

4. Organizations who helped sponsor the debates (Patch, the Union League Club and the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Senior Center).

5. Moderators who agreed to serve the day of the debates.

6. Citizens who attended the debates (standing room only at Lake Forest High School!).

7. A high school and a senior center who agreed to provide space for the debates (Lake Forest High School and Dickinson Hall).

8. League members who volunteered to take on any assignment they were asked to do* … and also four Lake Forest High School volunteers.

9. Voters who were well informed on November 6.

10. The existence of the League of Women Voters to provide voters a fo-rum to hear candidates.

Many thanks to:

*Liz Bradner, Kathleen Conlon-Wasik, Happie Datt, Peg Determan, Lisa Dietrich, Ann Hamlin, Cindy More-head, Tina O’Connor, Jane Partridge, Trude Roselle, Carol Russ, Jan Schno-brich, Alice Sievert, Marilyn Shineflug, Stephanie Victor and a special thanks to Mary Mathews for all her support with publicity, programs, computer work, and the TV coverage.

—Ann Grant and Mary Jane Brady

A Report From Your Voter Service Co-Chairs

Some of the many volunteers at the candidate debates (L to R): Lisa Dietrich, Cindy Morehead, Happie Datt, Carol Russ, Nancie Blatt, Mary Jane Brady, Ann

Grant, and Marilyn ShineflugBob Dold and Brad Schneider, candidates for 10th Congressional District

Jan Flappen, moderator, past president of LWVIL, with candidates for Illinois General Assembly Scott Drury, Mark Shaw, Julie Morrison, and Arie Friedman

DECEMBER 2012 PAGE 7

Voting always has been a major con-cern for the League. The League will continue to speak up for voting rights and for the Voting Rights Act. LWVUS supported the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required full disclosure of political campaign advertising spending in federal elections.

The environment has been another priority. Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our gen-eration, perhaps any generation. The

League of Women Voters has called on President Obama to take the historically necessary step of controlling industrial carbon pollution.

The League of Women Voters supports a federal fiscal policy that recognizes the importance of a fair tax system, that provides for social needs, and that will carefully manage the deficit and the economy. LWVUS is asking its mem-bers to tell Congress to provide a long-term solution by increasing revenue,

protecting the social safety net, reducing defense spending, and carefully manag-ing the deficit.

LWVUS Highlights

Regarding the Illinois Constitution Amendment #49, the League of Women Voters of Illinois recommended a no vote, arguing that the 3/5 majority requirement to effect a narrowly defined purpose – in this case voting to increase a pension benefit – places power in the hands of a minority. The amendment failed.

LWVIL has started a grassroots effort to get a Graduated Rate Income Tax Constitution Amendment through the Illinois General Assembly and onto the ballot in 2014. The League has long supported a position leading to a more responsive and fair fiscal policy.

LWVIL is completing its Illinois

Pension Reform Study. A position is expected in January 2013.

State Convention will be held beginning Thursday, June 6, through June 9 in Normal, Illinois.

LWVIL Highlights

League of Women Voters of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area

P.O. Box 645Lake Forest, IL 60045

www.LWV-LFLB.org... check it often!

CalendarThursday, January 3, 12:30 pm Board Meeting, Lake Bluff Library All members welcome

Tuesday, January 8 Trip to Field Museum

Sunday, February 3 Bill Kurtis, Speaker Water and Food Sustainability program

Thursday, February 14 LWV birthday, Member’s Tea/Program Planning for next year

Tuesday, February 26 Consolidated Primary Election

March Candidate debate

Tuesday, April 9 Consolidated Election

League of Women Voters of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area

Board of Directors

OFFICERS

Jane Partridge Co-President

Mary Mathews Co-President

Ann Grant Vice President, Voter Service

M.J. Brady Vice President, Voter Service

Cindy Morehead Secretary

Liz Bradner Treasurer

DIRECTORS

Happie Datt Program

Tracy Burns Program

Stephanie Victor Voter Registration

Linda Bartmes LWVLC Board Liaison

OFF-BOARD POSITIONS

Carol Gilbert E-Alerts

Nicki Snoblin Webmaster, Newsletter

Diane Sanderson Newsletter