Did Squeezy, Cullerton and Madigan know it would fail all along?
The pension theft that was called Senate Bill 1, now called Public Act 98-599, is scheduled to take effect on July 1st.
Current retirees will continue to receive their current benefit – including the post retirement increase we received last February – until next year.
Current active teachers and state employees will be impacted on the July 1 date and going forward.
All the unions and organizations who have filed constitutional and contractual legal challenges to PA 97-599 have now filed for injunctive relief that would stop any implementation of the law pending final court action.
Jim Broadway is a smart guy who knows and writes about education and Springfield.
If you don’t subscribe to his newsletter, you should.
This is Jim’s theory.
When Squeezy and Rauner faced off at their boxing match on Balbo, Squeezy said he would consider supporting a delay in the law’s implementation if the unions requested a stay.
Now we have.
Our argument is that since there is a strong possibility that our challenge to the constitutionality of the law will be successful – and since that won’t be decided by the July 1 date for implementation, the cost to the state if the law is tossed out will be huge.
We need only look at the thousands of university employees who have filed for retirement by June 29th, filings that may be irrevocable, to get a hint of the damage that will be done if the law goes into effect July 1.
Broadway thinks that there is little chance the courts will fail to agree to an injunction, particularly if Squeezy agrees.
It should be noted that as of this afternoon, Squeezy has not signed the bill cutting City pensions.
Broadway speculates that this may have been the plan all along.
Pass a bill that the courts will prevent from being implemented until a final decision on its constitutionality, knowing that the courts will ultimately find it unconstitutional.
Squeezy, Cullerton and Madigan figured all along that the courts will rule it unconstitutional. But it delays any need to seriously address the revenue issue anytime soon.
“It’s almost as if they wanted the enacted policy to fail,” writes Broadway.
Broadway’s implication is clear.
This entire process has been full of calculation, manipulation and constipation by state politicians. Nearly all of them, Republicans and Democrats alike.
It has been the most stressful on current retirees, many elderly folks who barely eke out a retirement on what they were planning on getting.
That Squeezy, Cullerton and Madigan had this as the plan all along would surprise no one who has lived in this state for any length of time.
But it is disgusting just the same.
Fred Klonsky 
Well-justified cynicism. An injunction was needed in January, not now. It’s too late for a lot of faculty whose retirement date became the end of the current contract, typically May 15. Besides, many are now comfortable with their forced decision to retire and wouldn’t change their minds regardless. Education in Illinois is spiraling downward out of control at all levels.
It doesn’t take a law degree to know that SB-1 violates both constitutional as well as contractual law. Case closed.
For all those people who anger me by saying, “It was a promise.”, no, Blago saying our pension money would be replaced when Illinois was through it’s rainy days was a promise! These pensions are ILLINOIS LAW!
Talk about a classic case of kicking the can down the road…
You are right, and not only are the pensions an ILLINOIS LAW, but they are also specifically protected by the Illinois constitution!
I have been saying all along that the pension bill/ law was just one move in an over all plan. Once declared unconstitutional, the next move will be an attempt to change the Constitution. When that fails then the politicians will say, “We tried but the courts said no. We tried but the voters said no. Now all that is left is to raise taxes. Sorry!” What a waste of time and valuable resources just to reach the end where many of us started. It’s a revenue problem stupid!
Huh – I guess you’ve been reading my mind. Or vice versa. I’ve said the same for a long time: a long convoluted process to give Czar Madigan cover to do what he’s knon all along is the only real solution: a tax increase, probably graduated. And if the Illinois Supreme Court says that the constitution is really just toilet paper, as the pro-theft forces say, why then the Czar gets a freebie.
WOW — right on the money my friend. I have felt this for months. However, I would suggest a couple of more steps, most importantly, requiring local school districts to become responsible for funding the pensions of their respective retired teachers. I do not believe there has been a word yet invented to describe Madigan and his “cabana boys”. With all that is going on with pensions, Madigan now wants to redirect $100,000,000.00 towards a presidential library; please. Paul, I’m 67 years old. I never dreamed when I retired in 2001, I would be worried that my constitutionally protected pension would be in jeopardy.
Paul,
The only way many local school districts in the state could afford to pay pension costs without ending current teacher salary increases and cutting education programs would be to receive more than the minimal state funding they now receive. Which is the lowest in the nation. So the state must increase revenue either way. Pay it one way or pay it the other.
“You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows” –Dylan
“The pump don’t work ’cause the vandals stole the handles.” – Bob Dylan
The only word that puzzled me in this statement was the reference to “constipation” in the legislature. If there were constipation, how come there is so much shit about this?
They already tried to change it in the constitution on benefits in 2012- it was defeated.
Different language.