Lawmakers could try to cut state staff pensions
SPRINGFIELD — House Republican Leader Tom Cross said Wednesday that legislative leaders would put together bipartisan group of lawmakers to try to decide how to deal with the retirement plans of current state employees.
Unions, though, say reducing benefits of state employees already in pension systems would be illegal.
Cross, of Oswego, said House Speaker Michael Madigan agreed in a meeting Wednesday to work on putting the panel together to try to address the “very unstable pension system.”
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown pointed to comments the speaker has made this week, saying lawmakers might have to look at reforming current employee pensions. But Brown wouldn't comment on Madigan's meeting with Cross Wednesday.
The pensions of public employees from teachers and police officers to lawmakers and university professors have become a huge problem for the state's finances in recent years.
The state has skipped payments into the retirement systems, costing them money. And retirees are living longer, meaning their total, lifetime pension payouts are bigger than expected.
Last year, lawmakers and Gov. Pat Quinn raised the retirement age for new public employees in an effort to save money decades in the future. But they left current employees alone, meaning there wasn't much upfront savings for a state severely strapped for cash.
Any efforts to change state workers' retirements will be controversial. Powerful unions will push back against any changes.
Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the Illinois Constitution denies reductions in benefits for current state employees. He said the union would sue immediately if the pensions of current employees were reduced.
“There is no question about it,” Lindall said. “There would a line a mile long at the courthouse door.”
Efforts to change current employees' pensions likely would focus on any benefits earned from the date reforms are approved going forward. Benefits a worker has already accrued would be untouched, Cross said.
Cross has filed legislation that would give current state workers several options for changed retirement plans.
“But I'm open to other suggestions,” Cross said.