| We have our very own Chicago boyz at Rantburg, so their take on this issue should be instructive. |
Some elements of the court's decision are drawing intense debate. But if the overnight consensus is anywhere near correct, everyone from City Hall and the Capitol to your local village and school board will have little option now but to dig deep, cut services and raise taxes a lot — and labor unions little incentive to compromise.
"The law in Illinois is now crystal clear: Politicians cannot break the promises made to Chicago teachers and other city employees," crowed the Chicago Teachers Union in a statement. "Recently passed laws to cut promised retirement benefits are clearly unconstitutional."
| This comes from our 1970 state constitution rewrite which guarantees that state pensions can never be reduced. Back in 1970 the labor unions were powerful enough to have a seat (via their pet Democrats) in the constitutional convention and they made sure this provision found its way in. They then spent the next 40 years boosting politicians (mostly but not always Democrats) who would in turn sweeten state pensions and retiree health care. We now have a pension system that is simply unaffordable, and if anyone says "cut the payments" the unions can go to court. The courts in turn point to the constitution, and the pension cuts go away. The union solution is, of course, to raise taxes as high as necessary -- a bit higher than that would be nice because the "excess" then could be used to sweeten the pensions some more. As Ace of Spades would say, we're truly boned, perhaps even worse than California. |
The court ruled that retiree health insurance benefits for state workers mandated by the Legislature deserve the same level of protection as pensions, which according to the constitution "cannot be diminished or impaired."