Ill. gov wants funding guarantee in pension bill

Pensions have been Quinn’s top issue for more than a year, but only recently has the flurry of pension-related bills surfaced. While lawmakers agree that it’s the most pressing financial problem, they’ve disagreed over almost every aspect of how to fix it and the approach they should take. On the table are both comprehensive plans and smaller bills that go after the problem piece by piece. Several plans overlap ideas.

Last week, House lawmakers approved legislation to reduce and delay cost-of-living increases in state employees’ retirement pay. House lawmakers have also approved a plan that would cap the salary on which benefits are based to the limit set for Social Security — currently about $113,000 a year. Another approved bill would delay the retirement age incrementally, based on workers’ ages now; younger workers would have to retire later.

“We’re not there yet, that was a very significant step,” Quinn said Monday of the House bills. “We still have to work on our law that we get to my desk. We’re on the right path.”

In the Senate last week, lawmakers rejected a comprehensive plan that called for higher employee contributions and a funding guarantee, among other things. Senators instead approved a scaled-back plan, sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton, which only addresses the Teachers’ Retirement System, the largest of the five.

Illinois lawmakers left Springfield on Friday for a two-week vacation.

See also:

• Treasury to tap federal pension funds to ease fiscal cliff
• What do the Verizon, GM pension deals mean to clients?
• How the recession has changed retirement planning