A look at Illinois’ pension crisis, proposed fix

From The News-Gazette

A Memo details pension proposal

From The Chicago Tribune

GOP governor candidates split on pension reform

From WSIL TV Channel 3

AFSCME, IL Policy Institute React to Pension Deal

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

Cutting the member contribution by one percent...

...makes no financial sense at all.

The Governor and the "pension crisis" gurus think that the way to reduce the $100 billion deficit is to cut the revenue stream? I mean...this isn't like with income taxes, where a cut in the tax rate is suppose to produce an increase in government revenue (which sometimes works, sometimes not.) This is totally different, a cut in member contributions is simply dollars lost, dollars that have to be made up by other cuts.

Buried amongst the articles was speculation that the member-contribution cut was a devious effort to make a blatantly unconstitutional cut in retiree benefits palatable to the Illinois Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court would see the "pension deal" as a product of "negotiations", that there was give and take.

Hard to see how the court would buy the negotiations angle, when the bill was drafted by 10 politicians behind closed doors and hidden (even from the other legislators) until a few days before a vote, a vote that promises to be rammed through with little or no debate.

But...

Nobody knows what will happen when you go to court (which is why so many plea bargains are offered and accepted.)

Plus...

...support from the court was already curried when the General Assembly took changes to their pension plan off of the table. The judges don't have a dog in the hunt!

So, let the games begin...

Sadly, for the people who did the work, paid into the system, and retired, trusting that the State of Illinois would uphold its end of the bargain...