The State Legislative Veto Session Opens Today. Tax Cuts For the Exchanges, Gambling, ComEd. The State Pension Crisis. When will it be addressed?

The legislative veto session opens this morning.  Like you, I'm holding my breath hoping something contructive gets done.  It is disappointing to see so little movement with pension reform, even with future pensions.  Meanwhile, this afternoon, the Senate looks at a bill to give corporate tax breaks to the Chicago Mercantile and the Board of Trade.

The corruption you see, the doomsday you don't

October 25, 2011

During their combined 74 years in the Illinois General Assembly, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton have voted for hundreds of billions of dollars in state spending. Trouble is, Illinois doesn't have the money to meet all of Madigan's and Cullerton's commitments. They, along with Gov. Pat Quinn, oversee a government that today has nearly $200 billion in debts as well as future obligations for which there's no money.

Yet every indication suggests that, once again, Madigan and Cullerton will be waving from the curb as this situation grows even more disastrous. We see no evidence that Madigan and Cullerton will use the legislative veto session that opens Tuesday to reduce future pension earnings, while protecting benefits already earned, for current employees.

You'd think Madigan and Cullerton would pull out all stops to pass pension reforms that are more important than any other legislation during the veto session. The Illinois pension system that Madigan and Cullerton have helped construct has elements that embody the very definition of "corrupt" — contaminated, morally unsound, debased, venal. What's more, that pension system is headed for the inevitable doomsday when it runs dry for retirees, and Illinois taxpayers will be asked to make it whole.

This veto session needs to deal with both of those crises: the pension corruption you see, and the pension doomsday that, until the system implodes, you don't. Will Madigan and Cullerton now deliver reforms? Or will the veto session be one more wasted opportunity, with these two men murmuring intentions to do the something … later.

Yes, we're talking here in part — but only in part — about the galling expose that began on the front page of Sunday's Tribune under the maddening headline, "Sub for a day, teacher pension for life":

Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007 … Over the course of their lifetimes, both men stand to receive more than a million dollars each from a state pension fund that has less than half of the assets it needs to cover promises made to tens of thousands of public school teachers. … The revelation that one day of substitute teaching allowed officials from a state teachers union to tap into an ailing public pension fund is yet another example of how the Illinois pension system has been manipulated for political purposes and personal gain.

Political purposes and personal gain. Hmm.

The personal gain is obvious: Steven Preckwinkle, political director for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and fellow union lobbyist David Piccioli have embarrassed every diligent schoolteacher who employs them but will never qualify for such lavish benefits. We're eager to learn whether Preckwinkle and Piccioli do choose to go through with looting the Teachers' Retirement System by accepting pension payments when they retire.

We're also eager to learn which Springfield school officials, by letting these two lobbyists into classrooms for a day, allowed them to exploit schoolchildren as pawns in their shakedown of the teachers system.

Those political purposes of this secretive stunt? That's where things get interesting. The pension fairy tapped her wand on Preckwinkle and Piccioli via legislation passed shortly after Illinois Democrats had splendid success in the 2006 general election. By their political action and big donations, teachers unions helped Democrats secure the re-election of the governor, Rod Blagojevich, and the election of Democrats to every other statewide office and to many seats in the General Assembly. Far be it from us to suggest that legislative Democrats quietly rewarded union lobbyists by arranging for them someday to be millionaires; many Republicans, too, voted for the bill because of other provisions it contained. But, sure enough, the net effect is that union lobbyists — teachers-for-a-day — wound up eligible to collect lavish benefits from the Teachers' Retirement System.

Mr. Madigan, Mr. Cullerton, every few days the Tribune has been publishing new revelations of scummy pension deals that became legal on your watch in Springfield. Ending the corruption you've tolerated is necessary. But it certainly isn't sufficient.

We were pleased Monday to see a bill initiated by House Republican Leader Tom Cross emerge from committee; the legislation addresses Chicago schemes that have allowed labor leaders to claim public pensions based on their earlier years as city employees. But this isn't a bill that will significantly reduce the state's unfunded pension obligations.

So, Mr. Madigan, Mr. Cullerton, we'll all see how much influence you exert to undo pension corruption — and to reform future benefits so employees someday can collect pensions from a solvent system.

For now this whole pension debacle is all yours, gentlemen. You own it, along with the resulting financial obligations that you and your colleagues have created for furious taxpayers.

You have six session days. Pension reform first.