Keeping retirement weird. Chipping away at public pensions: A Tier III
At about the 37 minute point of our talk on Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers with Alderman and Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois, Ameya Pawar, and following an extended conversation about public employee pensions, I asked, “If the legislature passed a bill changing the benefit structure of the pension system, diminishing benefits, would you sign it?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Alderman Pawar said. “Because they keep playing the same game over and over again.”
I was prescient.
Only a few hours earlier, the legislature overrode a veto by Governor Rauner, of a budget agreement.
That was good.
But part of the budget agreement was a change to the pension system that few of us knew was in the agreement.
This is bad news.
Late yesterday I received this notice from the Illinois Teachers Retirement System:
In conjunction with this week’s passage of a state budget for fiscal year 2018, the Illinois General Assembly approved a new law that significantly changes the Illinois Pension Code by creating an optional “Tier III” benefitKeeping retirement weird. Chipping away at public pensions: A Tier III. | Fred Klonsky:
