New pension law closes loopholes

Public employees can no longer rely on some loopholes to inflate their state benefits, including one that allowed two union officials to qualify for teachers’ retirement perks after a single day in the classroom, under a law signed Thursday.

The law, which takes effect immediately, also aims to end the practice of double dipping. In some cases — most notably in the Chicago area — employees took leaves of absence from city jobs, took full-time union jobs, then collected pensions from both.

The legislation also says current union leaders can’t base public pensions on union pay checks; now their pay will be based on their salaries when they leave their government jobs.

“Pension abuse can’t run rampant as it has been reported in recent months,” said Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross, in a statement. “We will remain vigilant on these issues of abuse as well as tackling the broader systematic funding problems with our pension systems.”

The new law closes a loophole made possible by legislation in 2007 that allowed two lobbyists for the Illinois Federation of Teachers to qualify for teachers’ retirement benefits after spending one day in the classroom. Neither had prior teaching experience, but they were allowed to count past years as union employees toward teacher pensions after quickly obtaining teachers’ credentials and substitute teaching for a single day. A spokesman for the men has questioned the constitutionality of the new law because it’s retroactive. The Chicago Tribune first reported the practice last year.

The law also requires that any suspicion of pension fraud be reported to the authorities.

It doesn’t address larger issues, including how to reduce the state retirement systems’ massive $85 billion unfunded liability.

“We are moving forward and focused on working together this year to tackle the remaining pension challenges that face Illinois,” Gov. Pat Quinn’s office said in a statement.