By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – A small business advocacy group says employers are wary of state government facilitating retirement savings for the private sector when it hasn’t done a great job with other programs.

Illinois’ Secure Choice Savings Plan, approved in 2015, requires private sector employers to deduct employee pay to go into a savings account, once the program is set up.

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs advocates for the program but said “we have set this program up in a way that is going to be no cost, little responsibility on behalf of employers.”

While employees can opt-out of the program, National Federation of Independent Business Illinois State Director Mark Grant said employers cannot, and that comes with a cost.

“That’s just one more thing they have to deal with and they have to make sure that they’re complying with it, that they don’t make mistakes, and they have to make sure that all of their employees are aware of it because if they don’t, there are some problems there,” Grant said.

Grant said NFIB has opposed the program, which hasn’t been fully implemented, from the get-go, not just because of possible employer costs.

“I think there’s rightly some concerns about government doing this right,” he said. “We’ve seen programs in the past that have had some real problems, some college savings programs, so I think there’s some legitimate concern there.”

Illinois is one of eight states with such programs. Earlier this month, the U.S. House approved a repeal of a federal rule allowing such state-operated programs. The Senate is expected to take up the repeal next month.