{"id":469547,"date":"2010-03-24T18:46:11","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a972134b970b"},"modified":"2010-03-24T21:19:22","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T01:19:22","slug":"pension-reforms-zoom-through-general-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/469547","title":{"rendered":"Pension reforms zoom through General Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir<\/em> at 5:45 p.m.; last updated at 8:11 p.m.<\/strong>
<\/br><\/p>\n

SPRINGFIELD — Following years of calls for pension reform, changes that would raise the retirement age to 67 for government workers to collect full benefits and put new limits on annual pensions zoomed through the General Assembly tonight.<\/p>\n

The idea is to save billions of dollars in the coming decades for taxpayers who will have to dig deep to cover retirement costs for school teachers, lawmakers and public servants in state government, universities, cities, park districts and counties.\n<\/p>\n

But the reforms would not apply to anyone who\u2019s currently in the retirement system, only new government hires and state officials elected in the future.
<\/br><\/p>\n

Another criticism of the legislation is that it will have little, if any, immediate impact on the worst-in-the-nation pension debt–estimated between $77 billion and $90 billion. But the growth in that pension debt should be reduced considerably and save tens of billions over several decades, budget analysts said.<\/p>\n

The Illinois Senate approved the bill 48-6, with three present votes, tonight after it passed the House 92-17, with seven lawmakers voting present, this afternoon. To see how House lawmakers voted please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"This bill is not window dressing," said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. "It’s substantial reform."
<\/br>
<\/br>Quinn issued a statement in favor of the legislation this afternoon.<\/p>\n

"I am a longtime advocate for pension reform and believe it is crucial for our state to get its public pension costs under control to help save Illinois taxpayers\u2019 money now and in the future. The proposed pension reform will stabilize the system, protect current state employees and provide attractive pension benefits to future state workers," the governor said.<\/p>\n

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago called the legislation "a step in the right direction," but argued it doesn’t begin to address the state’s "urgent fiscal problems."<\/p>\n

That’s because the legislation doesn’t apply the reforms to current government employees, said R. Eden Martin, the organization’s president.<\/p>\n

If the reforms are approved, they could give Gov. Pat Quinn and state
\n lawmakers a chance to pick
\nup savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in a new budget year
\nbeginning July 1, according to legislative budget forecasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir at 5:45 p.m.; last updated at 8:11 p.m. SPRINGFIELD — Following years of calls for pension reform, changes that would raise the retirement age to 67 for government workers to collect full benefits and put new limits on annual pensions zoomed through the General Assembly tonight. The idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}