Good work. Now put your boots back on.

Representative Elaine Nekritz and Senator Dan Biss. Separated at birth. With apologies to Harpo.

Last night and this morning the news reports were all about the failed opportunity to fix the Illinois pension system.

They still don’t get it.

Fixing the pension system was never on the legislative agenda.

There is only one problem with the state public employee pension systems in Illinois: The political leaders refuse to raise enough tax money from their deep pocketed sponsors to pay their bills.

Hey. Springfield political reporters. Repeat after me: It is a revenue problem. Not a pension problem.

Talk of a progressive graduated income tax was not on the agenda during this just finished lame duck session.

Nobody was talking about Dr. Ron Baiman’s six corporate loopholes. Close them and you would eliminate 75% of the unfunded pension liability of nearly $100 billion dollars.

Democratic Party North Shore Representative Elaine Nekritz has no interest in closing corporate loopholes. She’d rather cut grandma’s 3% cost of living increases for the next five years. And then reduce it to $600 bucks.

And in spite of a massive push back by the state’s public employee union members and their allies that stalled the pension bomb yesterday afternoon, all the players are back and ready to go at it again.

So hose off your boots and put them back on. The new version of the Illinois General Assembly convenes today.

Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, said she plans to put forth a proposal she developed with other House members calling for reduced cost-of-living adjustments in retirement benefits, higher employee contributions to pensions and a guarantee the state will make its required pension payments.

That plan also will revive a provision that had been removed this week, in hopes of attracting more votes for the package: shifting pension costs for downstate teachers to local school districts.

Yet. There is still no consensus.

Nekritz’s bill, which Governor Quinn calls the comprehensive one, scared away many legislators because they believe it is clearly unconstitutional. And they are right.

Senate President John Cullerton, wants a forced choice bill. It would require members of the pension system to choose between a cost of living adjustment and access to health care. He thinks the choice component makes it constitutional.

He’s wrong. It’s all unconstitutional

House Speaker Madigan wants a cost shift, where future pension obligations will be paid for by local governments, including school systems, rather than the state. But there are few suburban and downstate legislators who want to face local taxpayers with that idea.

In a press conference following the House adjournment yesterday, Cullerton said that the two chambers should pass both bills and let the courts figure it out.

Kind of like, “Let’s shoot ’em all and figure out who the guilty ones are later.”

And what of the labor coalition?

On the one hand, the IEA and the rest of the We Are One coalition of public employee labor unions had to be pushed into mobilizing their members.

The mass rallies last Thursday and Friday weren’t huge, but they had their impact.

Phone calls to legislators were a powerful weapon. There were many reports of filled email boxes and legislator phones that were simply turned off.

Legislator secretaries were harried.

The most serious criticism of our leaders was that in their desire to be at the table, they offered up a 2% additional member contribution.

Of course, it is outrageous that even those like self-proclaimed progressive Democrats Kelly Cassidy and Robyn Gabel would actually co-sponsor the Nekritz bill, or any pension bill, without consulting with the state’s labor unions.

They are clearly under the management of the Speaker.

I mean, it really says something that my state Representative Toni Berrios, Machine politician and daughter of Democratic boss Joe Berrios, voted was against the Nekritz bill and Robyn Gabel voted for sponsored it. How low do you have to go to get lower than Toni Berrios?

But the offering up of additional member contributions muddied the waters. It suggested that the ultimate solution could be found without changing the central economic issue confronting Illinois.

We tax the rich too little. We spend too little on our people.

Teachers and other state workers paying an additional 2% and grandma giving up her COLA can’t fix that.