A decade later, what happened to the Illinois pension crisis?
My art is on Instagram @klonskyart
Today will be the third day of 90+ heat in Chicago and I’m staying inside.
I’ll leave going to the gym for tomorrow.
After my morning shower I grabbed an old t-shirt to go with my shorts.
The shirt, ten years old, was the one my union local had printed up when we were fighting to protect our teacher pensions.
“Don’t mess with my TRS.”
This week is ten years since I retired from my teaching job.
When I retired my pension was in doubt.
The political leaders of the state of Illinois had taken money that was supposed to go into the pension bucket and spent it on other stuff.
That was good for them because they didn’t have to raise taxes to pay for roads and stuff.
In fairness to them, we have a constitutional prohibition in Illinois against taxing rich people.
By the time I retired after teaching 30 years, the pension fund was in hock a hundred billion dollars or so.
It was a crisis!
How do I know it was a crisis?
Because the Chicago Tribune, Governor Pat Quinn, Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, Senator Dan Biss, Representative Elaine Nekritz all said it was a crisis.
The Illinois Policy Institute kept being invited on Chicago Tonight to tell every parent that their kid was born owing every retired teacher $12,000.
As soon ass I retired I was mugged.
The Illinois legislature mugged us all and passed a bill gutting our pensions.
The state teacher unions, the IFT and the IEA, went along with the mugging by supporting the state senate’s version of the bill.
However, a group of retired teachers, the Illinois Retired Teachers Association, hired a good lawyer.
We filed suit because the state’s constitution clearly says the legislature can’t mug the teachers of our pensions.
The Illinois Supreme Court agreed unanimously.
That was seven years ago.
Since then the thing that has changed is who got mugged.
Teachers hired after 2010 are in a new pension group that will get less, work longer and get less of a cost of living.
It will end up in court.
The pension liability is still there.
I get my full pension.
But nothing has happened to the debt.
What happened to the crisis?
Ten years ago it was a crisis.
Now it’s not even an issue in the race for governor.
I don’t know the answer.
But I’m keeping my t-shirt.