SPRINGFIELD, Ill. • Illinois Republicans are calling a plan to shift portions of the state's pension obligation to local school districts a "recipe for disaster."

Gov. Pat Quinn has discussed supporting a plan to pass the employers' portion of teacher retirement benefits, which has a $1 billion dollar price tag, on to the local school districts. The idea to let school districts foot the bill has gained support from Democratic leaders.

State House Republicans held a press conference Tuesday to urge Democrats to rethink the plan.

"The idea that the speaker, the senate president and the governor are now speaking from the same talking points lends some credence and some concern to those at the local school district level," Sen. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, said. "Particularly, the way they fund and operate their schools might be in harm's way."

In the governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013, the state will allocate 51 percent of the pension funds to the Teachers Retirement System. The state's current pension system has an $83 billion unfunded liability. Talk of transferring the cost of teacher retirement benefits to the local school districts aims to relieve the state of some of this current burden.

However, Republicans say it moves the burden to the school boards and taxpayers.

"It could either be a property tax increase or depending on how they structure the deal they're going to have to cut whatever those costs are within your school district," Rep. Ed Sullivan, R- Mundelein, said. "So you're either going to lose teachers or have a massive property tax."

Sandack said that school districts are "ill-prepared" to handle these types of payments. "It's a recipe for chaos and instability to the school boards, and of course, and more importantly, chaos and instability to the taxpayer," Sandack said.

"I'm hopeful my colleagues here and others across the aisle are going to slow down and have real discussions about the details, not just in concept, not just in notion, but with specifics because we owe that to all the stakeholders," Sandack said.

According to a report from the Teachers Retirement System, if lawmakers choose to have local school districts pay the teachers retirement benefits the Belleville school district would owe nearly $1.6 million dollars. The Edwardsville school district would owe $3 million. The Alton and Granite City school districts would each owe $2.7 million, and the Bethalto school district would owe $1 million.

The plan to shift the cost of teacher retirement benefits to school districts has not yet been formally proposed.