Illinois Senate to try again on pension reform

Illinois lawmakers will be asked to again tackle cost-saving pension reforms as part of the "grand bargain" package of bills being negotiated in the Senate.

The new version takes a different approach to pension reform that advocates believe will allow it to withstand an inevitable court challenge.

However, an analysis of the bill prepared by a coalition of public employee unions disputes that idea and says the most recent reform plan is just as unconstitutional as a plan struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2015.

The analysis was distributed to state lawmakers.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed for lawmakers to enact pension reforms even as payments to the five state-funded pension systems eat up more tax revenue each year. Required payments to the pensions systems will increase by $1 billion in next year's budget to about $8.8 billion. The state's pension debt has now climbed to $130 billion.

Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20170121/illinois-senate-to-try-again-on-pension-reform