Illinois pension reform resurfaces

By Matt Paprocki
03/01/2014
In December 2013, a pension reform bill passed out of the Illinois General Assembly. Sponsors of the bill estimated $160 billion in savings over the next 30 years, and supporters touted that the pension problem in Illinois was finally fixed. In fact, most of the dialogue throughout the Capitol was that the state-funded pension systems...

TAGS: 401(k), COGFA: Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, defined benefit plans, GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, pensions

A principled stand against pension “fix”

By Matt Paprocki
12/04/2013
Lawmakers met in Springfield on Tuesday for a special session on pension reform. After an early morning committee hearing, a gathering of each of the four legislative caucuses and several hours of lengthy floor debates, a pension bill passed the House and Senate, and now awaits Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature. The Illinois Policy Institute adamantly...

TAGS: Brad Halbrook, Brian Stewart, Dale Righter, Dan Duffy, David Harris, David Luechtefeld, defined benefit plans, Dwight Kay, Jason Barickman, Jeanne Ives, Joe Sosnowski, Kyle McCarter, pensions, Senate Bill 1, Tom Cross, Tom Morrison

Institute in Daily Herald: Defined benefit plans cannot be sustained

12/31/2012
Daily Herald published the following opinion piece by the Institute’s Vice President of Policy, Ted Dabrowski: Many civic groups are calling for the legislature to do something ? anything ? on pension reform. That’s fool’s advice. Instead, they should call on lawmakers to do the right thing. That means a defined contribution system. It’s the...

TAGS: defined benefit plans