My point is that the system will most likely balance itself through attrition in the next 30 years. The plan needed to resolve this crisis within 5 years and not 30 years.

I expect just as the income tax wasn’t enough, this too will fall short. The Pension system is top heavy (more retirees than workers paying into the system.) The fund can not sustain itself on investment returns at this time in history. The only way to infuse enough cash into the pension system to grow the base and increase the return is with more employees.

Unfortunately the state can not hire enough bodies to do the work that is needed because every worker has to come in at prevailing wages. Illinois could benefit from an influx of $10-$15/hr state employees cleaning up the parks and other facilities. Those un-employed people and recent college grads would be willing to take the lower paid jobs for the pension at the end of the road.

Unfortunately, prevailing wages have removed that option from our state tool belt.

Now, here we are cutting the carrot that used to move the state, while our employees munch on the lettuce leaves that the unions have heaped in front of the them.

Although Quinn sought to frame his special session call based on hopes for a deal, Republicans said privately that they had not talked to the governor since he had convened the legislative leadership in his office about six weeks ago.

That said, Republicans are on the wrong side of this fight and will lose badly if they don’t rethink their position on local responsibility for pensions. Even the Chicago Tribune editorial board disagrees with them.

That’s what happens when your political/legislative strategy is always picking fights and never looking for solutions. In chess, they call it “forcing the tempo.” Eventually, you pick a fight you can’t win, and end up losing everything.

If Republicans end up looking like the Obstructionists on Pension Reform, what exactly will they campaign on in the Fall?

Exactly what does the governor want passed? Is is the plan for all four systems that he supported until he backed off only to then support it again?

Please, shed some light on the goals and desires of the Quinndergarten.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, TO RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENT, if Cullerton’s reasoning was that the Senate already did its part as you suggest and therefore should be exempt from this special session, then he wouldn’t have offered to call the Senate back in on his own in order in order to save per diem costs.

So instead of focusing on the problem that costs billions of dollars, Cullerton wants to change the focus to a few thousand dollars to try and embarrass the Governor, so once again I re-state my original post which is that this is proof that Illinois is broken.

Instead of having a special session that will focus on a real problem that has a price tag of billions of dollars, the focus of the event is now about a measly few thousand dollars in per diem costs. Congratulations Cullerton for being absolutely tone deaf and worried more about a stupid headline and cheap politics then real problems.