By Mark Glennon of Wirepoint.com -
Governor JB Pritzker wants Illinoisans to believe that an amendment to Illinois’ pension protection clause is doomed to fail. He went so far as to call the effort a “fantasy” during his budget address on Wednesday. Pritzker’s claim is that any amendment would be struck down because of the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
This is important because an amendment is essential if we want serious public pension reform. The only alternative is bankruptcy. That’s because without either an amendment or bankruptcy, changes to pension benefits are prohibited by the pension protection clause in the Illinois Constitution, our state courts say.
Pritzker is either dishonest or horribly misinformed. Court rulings and actual experience in other states make it clear that Pritzker is wrong. A pension amendment would almost certainly work to allow for needed reforms to most of our 667 pubic pensions in Illinois.
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