Courtesy of Mish.
Illinois Supreme Court Rules Against Chicago Mayor
In a 5-0 decision today, the Illinois Supreme Court today trashed mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pension reform plan.
The ruling, welcomed by unions, dealt Another Blow to Chicago Taxpayers — and Mayor Emanuel.
Excerpt:
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional another pension reform law on Thursday, this one affecting Chicago and splashing more red ink on fragile, debt-ridden city finances.
The court’s decision to toss Chicago’s pension reform law, which the Illinois legislature approved in 2014 as an attempt to rescue pension funds for municipal workers and laborers, was not a surprise. Nor is its ripple effect: As the opinion states and unarguable math attests, those two funds remain on track to go insolvent “in about 10 and 13 years, respectively.”
The court previously had twice ruled that an Illinois Constitution pension clause protects retirement benefits promised from a worker’s start of public employment. The law the justices rejected had required certain city of Chicago workers to pay more toward their pensions, scaled back cost-of-living increases upon retirement, and raised the retirement age. The court ruled that those changes violate the constitution’s provision that membership in any pension or retirement system “shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”
Chicago Tribune Translation: “City and state politicians have known well that they were awarding pension benefits that Illinois governments cannot afford. Rather than properly fund pension systems, the politicians have spent on other priorities the tax revenues they should have set aside to fulfill all the generous retirement promises they made to their friends in public employees unions.”
I am pleased by the Illinois Supreme Court ruling. Ironically, so are the unions.
One of us is wrong but I don’t believe it’s me. This ruling should end the charade games.
Let the mayor blame the governor, but here’s the reality: The pretending period is over. The only solution to this mess is bankruptcy.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
