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* From a press release…
After many years of hard work, the Illinois General Assembly crafted and Governor Quinn signed a significant piece of pension reform legislation last December which protected our state from financial implosion, while also protecting the pension benefits of Illinois’ state and municipal employees.
Today’s state retiree health care ruling considered a different set of facts than that important legislation, and it is a fundamental premise of our legal system that a court cannot preemptively rule on a matter that is not yet before them.
Our state’s ability to continue providing crucial services, while securing public employee pensions, requires that the pension reform legislation take effect.
Not to be confused with The Civic Federation, which is led by Lawrence Msall. This is Ty Fahner’s group. The two entities are not affiliated with one another.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 1:44 pm
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Great non-comment comment. Ty, stick in your ear. You’ve lost.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 1:51 pm
Sounds like whistling past a grave yard?
Comment by Mason born Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 1:51 pm
Maybe Governor Rauner can call for a special constitutional convention to rid the current constitution on all bad stuff and being true reform to the Land of Lincoln.
Comment by confused downstate Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 1:53 pm
Surprised at the clarity of his comments given how deep in the sand his head must be at the moment.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 1:56 pm
Another “fundamental premise of our legal system” is the clear language of the constitution.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:01 pm
One way to address the problem is the privatize some of the Illinois universities. This is one guaranteed way to diminish the pensions of current government workers at these institutions. If you think it’s crazy , it’s not. If employees of Illinois State university are longer government workers they are going to be accruing the benefits they would have. Just a reminder.
Comment by Steve Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:14 pm
Yes, ISC hasn’t ruled on SB0001 yet … but the signal is as clear as an oncoming freight train in a tunnel.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:15 pm
Steve, thanks for the reminder of yet another example of Things That Will Never Ever Happen. Ever.
Comment by Shark Sandwich Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:34 pm
Mason, I think whistling past the graveyard is order of the day in some circles.
Ty has some ’splaining to do to his peeps.He signed on all the way.
Maybe after that sandwich Michelle was talking about.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:39 pm
You have to love the language. We need to cut benefits in order to continue “securing public employee pensions” is akin to the Vietnam-era saying “We had to destroy the town in order to save it”.
Comment by DuPage Dave Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:46 pm
Wordslinger
Anything that doesn’t allow us to keep our delusions doesn’t exist. Reminds me of an Ayn Rand Quote, “You can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” I know she isn’t most peoples favorite but it really fits here.
Comment by Mason born Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:47 pm
Perhaps the Civic Federation should consider changing their name to The Ostrich Society.
Comment by Regnad Kcin Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:54 pm
- Michelle Flaherty -
Did they appreciate the box lunches you sent over?
Comment by Bill White Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:55 pm
=@Mason….Reminds me of an Ayn Rand Quote, “You can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” I know she isn’t most peoples favorite but it really fits here=
On target all the way, this is exactly what happened in Illinois, the so called emergency was created by the ILGA. Poor Ty, must not have taken a civics class in school (if he did, he clearly failed) the Constitution is the law of the land. US Constitution first, Illinois second. That is the measure by which all legislation is judged.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 2:58 pm
===Surprised at the clarity of his comments given how deep in the sand his head must be at the moment.===
Michelle, his head is in deep, but not in sand.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 3:09 pm
Nothing but moral narcissism.
We worked so hard and meant so well and thought everything through, there just has to be something in today’s ruling that recognizes that although we ended up losing, we really didn’t lose!
It doesn’t matter your intentions or struggle, bottom line is what you were proposing was found completely unconstitutional.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 3:10 pm
I’ve become convinced over the years that the whole Civvie strategy (such as it was) was to forestall a move to a graduated personal income tax.
They didn’t worry about the corporate rate so much because most of them don’t pay too much there.
But a personal graduated rate like Wisconsin or Iowa is a big hit on the big hitters on that team.
The top dogs at Abbott, Walgreens, Motorola, Trib, etc — a bump to 8.98% or 7.67% is real money.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 3:34 pm
Michelle: And every side sees “clear language” that supports their own positions.
Comment by walker Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 3:51 pm
Not surprised in the least–the IPI also disapproves of the decision: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/press_releases/breaking-illinois-supreme-court-issues-ruling-in-case-regarding-state-retiree-health-care-benefits/
Comment by G'Kar Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 4:19 pm
I got a different IPI blast a few minutes ago myself aimed at the Chicago pension problems … so I’m not surprised at the one linked to above. In the one above, IPI starts with the assumption the court got it wrong and goes from there, asserting their assumptions as fact.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 4:30 pm
The 1% or 0.1% are going to keep fighting this because they know the alternative is to tax them more!
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 4:31 pm
RNUG, did you notice that Shillman of the IPI never cites by name any of his “pension experts or lawyers” in that blast of nonsense they sent out?
Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 4:50 pm
AA, yeah, it’s always a vague “they” …
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jul 3, 14 @ 5:05 pm