The recent opinion you published on the Illinois pension problems [Larry Lough's column, Feb. 2] failed to cover an important part of the story. I can only hope this was not intentional to put a certain slant on the issue of public employees needing to be punished for the benefits they are receiving.

Your article did not attempt to tell how those legislators and governors for many years failed to fund the state's portion of the state annual pension funding as determined by the actuary.

State employees every year paid what they were required to pay. These politicians told employees they needed funds to pay for their needs, so they took the pension funding and used those funds as their piggy bank. They then told state employees not to worry because those benefits are guaranteed.