* Former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner has penned an op-ed for the State Journal-Register on pension reform that is completely devoid of any specifics whatsoever. Instead, he spends most of his time dismissing Eric Madiar, the chief legal counsel to Senate President John Cullerton who penned a well-researched 76-page report on why it would be unconstitutionally illegal for the state to reduce pension benefits for current public workers. Most of Fahner’s piece is rhetoric, and here’s the heart of his argument…

It is our opinion, legally and politically, that it is possible to amend the retirement benefits for current public employees on a prospective basis that honors what already has been earned while reducing future costs. What is not an option is for Madiar and those he represents to be in denial and say there is simply nothing the legislature can do to resolve the state’s financial crisis. The legislature certainly can address this issue and, more importantly, they must address it for the good of everyone in Illinois. It is a great excuse for the faint of heart to say they would do something about the state’s financial crisis — but they could not vote for something constitutionally barred.

Translation: Trust us. This is constitutional. Don’t ask us why because the last time that happened, we took a serious beatdown.

* Meanwhile, I regularly see this exact same comment posted here whenever pension reforms are mentioned…

They have stolen from our pension system and owe it billions of dollars. they need to pay back the state pension system.

As I’ve made abundantly clear, I abhor the escalating national attacks on teachers and other public employees as ignorant and needlessly vengeful nonsense. A frightened, aging, underwater middle class is at war with a subset of itself in the wake of a global economic meltdown caused by a handful of fantastically corrupt financial institutions. The widespread fear and loathing is wholly understandable. The target of that scary ire isn’t.

But comments like the one posted above drive me more than a little crazy.

* It’s a given that the General Assembly and the governor have shorted the pension systems almost since the systems were created. From the Senate Democratic pension funding analysis…

At the time of the [1970 Illinois Constitutional] Convention… The five State pension systems had an aggregate funding ratio of 41.8%… the five systems currently have a combined funding ratio of 39%.

The new Constitution was supposed to remedy this problem by sternly warning legislators and governors that they couldn’t both over-promise and underfund. They did it anyway.

But while there’s no disputing that the funds were shorted, the inflammatory rhetoric about “theft” is just that: Inflammatory rhetoric.

Do you think they just pocketed all those billions? C’mon. The reality is that almost all that diverted pension money went where almost all state government money almost always goes: Education, health care and public safety

* But aside from the gross and willful historical ignorance, this constant selfish refrain about past grievances completely ignores the problem of what we need to do now. Frankly, their approach is downright childish. “Just pay what you promised!” they scream, as if there’s some magic money pot that’s been deliberately hidden by the powers that be, which, if found, would instantly solve all problems without any sort of pain.

I got a news flash for you people: That magic money pot doesn’t exist.

* This pervasive and churlish attitude also completely ignores what happened in January. Just about every dime from January’s personal income tax increase will be spent next fiscal year on pensions and pension debt service. (By FY 2014, every dime of the personal and corporate tax hikes will be eaten up by pensions and pension debt service, plus some.)

In other words, every working person in Illinois has been ordered to hand over the equivalent of a week’s pay so that the state can satisfy its pension obligations next year. But attempts to deal with this painful, overwhelming burden are met with a firewall of self-centered hostility.

What would you have the state do? Should school funding be slashed, grandmas kicked out of nursing homes and hospital doors locked just so we can make pension payments? Or perhaps we should enact yet another income tax hike?

* Please, spare us the grotesque fits of whining and crying. Quit petulantly stomping your feet, grow up and get in the game. The taxpayers of Illinois have just been forced into a major concession in this decades-long battle. It’s your turn now. Participate.

* And then there’s this…

A bill that would have abolished the 50 percent tuition waivers that go to the children of public university employees is on hold after opponents included what the sponsor called “a poison pill.”

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, decided to avoid a full Senate Executive Committee vote on the legislation (SB 1318) Wednesday evening after committee members voted down an amendment that would have allowed current employees to continue to enjoy the benefit.

But the committee then voted to adopt a second Radogno-requested amendment to ban the long-controversial General Assembly scholarships.

The result left Radogno with a bill guaranteed to get plenty of “no” votes; she opted not to call it for a vote in committee.

“The way they would not allow the amendment on the bill that would make it prospective, I don’t think it’s fair to pull the rug out from people who were counting on it,” she said after the committee meeting. “But as a policy, going forward, these (employee tuition) waivers don’t make sense. Wisconsin doesn’t offer them. Iowa doesn’t offer them. Only four states even offer them in statute.”

So, it’s not fair to “pull the rug out from people” when it comes to tuition waivers, but it’s A-OK to do that with pension benefits for current government employees? The Senate Republican budget proposal wants to save $1.35 billion by doing just that. Odd.