Tag: state constitution

TO FIX ILLINOIS’ PENSION CRISIS, FIRST CHANGE ITS CONSTITUTION

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.illinoispolicy.org/to-fix-illinois-pension-crisis-first-change-its-constitution/

Excerpt:

Illinois allocates more of its budget to pensions than any other state, but pension spending has only skyrocketed. A constitutional amendment is the only way to reform the state’s unsustainable and underfunded pension systems.

Daley College Professor Mike Crenshaw is far from retirement, but he constantly worries whether the State Universities Retirement System will be solvent for him.

“I have 20 years until I can retire, and my biggest fear is that the money’s not going to be there,” Crenshaw said.

….

Because pension benefits are defined in the Illinois Constitution, only a constitutional amendment approved by voters could change pension structures. Amending the constitution would open the door to changing the compounding raises to simple inflationary adjustments – protecting the systems for retirees and ending the excessive drain on taxpayers.

Author(s): Dylan Sharkey

Publication Date: 18 Jan 2022

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute

Claims that Illinois pension reform would fail at federal level just aren’t true: The case of Arizona – Wirepoints

Mary Pat Campbell
Claims that Illinois pension reform would fail at federal level just aren’t true: The case of Arizona – Wirepoints

Excerpt:

Perhaps one of the best examples for successful reform is Arizona’s recent effort, where the state amended its constitution and passed pension reforms to, as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey described it, set its public safety “pension system on a path to financial stability while improving the way it serves our brave cops and firefighters.”

No federal challenges to Arizona’s reforms have been made – which is part of a longstanding pattern nationally. Dozens of states over the past several decades have reformed their public pension systems as problems became apparent over the years. None has been sued successfully under the U.S. Constitution – whether under the contract clause or any other provision – in all that time.

Author(s): Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

Publication Date: 10 August 2021

Publication Site: Wirepoints

Op-ed: Illinois pension reform: Arizona provides a model worth another look

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-illinois-pension-reform-arizona-20210525-eb5z573ajbfdlhemyj25yij22i-story.html

Excerpt:

Which is why every politician and every voter in Illinois ought to know how Arizona managed its 2016 reform of the 48% funded Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, which had a cost-of-living adjustment calculation that everyone agreed was broken, including the unions themselves. But Arizona shares with Illinois a constitutional protection against pension changes, specifically stating that “public retirement systems shall not be diminished or impaired.”

So how did they implement this change? In a two-step process, the legislature passed reform legislation and then placed on the ballot a constitutional amendment which inserted a new clause into the state constitution: “Public retirement systems shall not be diminished or impaired, except that certain adjustments to the public safety personnel retirement system may be made as provided in Senate Bill 1428, as enacted by the fifty-second legislature, second regular session.”

This meant that the citizens of Arizona could vote on this pension change without having to worry about whether they were authorizing any unknown future changes to pensions that they might not have wanted.

Author(s): Elizabeth Bauer

Publication Date: 25 May 2021

Publication Site: Chicago Tribune