Though House Speaker Mike Madigan claims his new pension proposal will save $160 billion over 30 years, much of what the Speaker calls “pension reform” is little more than a mix of accounting changes and a plan to commandeer more taxpayer funds. Madigan needed to find more savings since this version of his bill allows...

The 401(k) option is a fake: The bill says that some people would be allowed to participate in a 401(k)-style plan. But participation in the 401(k) option is limited to 5 percent of Tier 1 members (which includes members who were hired before 2011). Once 5 percent of these members are in the plan, it...

REPORTS Pension Solutions: reforming retirement age More than 50% of Illinois government pensioners retired at age 59 or younger. Read more… Pension Solutions: cost-of-living adjustments are supersizing state pensions More than 8,000 Illinois government retirees receive more than $100,000 in annual pension benefits. Read more… Illinois’ pension system lacks transparency Actuarial data need to be...

For 33 years, Clyde Tome served the city of Detroit as a firefighter. Every day he was on duty he knew his life was on the line; in one encounter with riot fires, Tome watched a colleague die. Another time, he saw a nearby fireman killed in a random shooting. For his commitment, Tome counted...

There’s immense pressure on Illinois legislators to pass a pension bill. With the state pension system nearing insolvency and credit agencies warning of further downgrades, the perceived wisdom is that any pension fix, no matter how small, is a “step forward” that must be passed. But when it comes to pension reform in Illinois, that...