An Illinois House committee Monday will begin hearings on a new approach for dealing with the state’s crushing pension debt.

Under consideration will be plans that would allow workers at retirement to take pension benefits as a lump-sum cash payment and give up guaranteed pension payments for life.

For some workers, this could mean a payout of hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the same time, proponents say, it would help reduce Illinois’ crushing pension debt that now stands at $111 billion.

Detroit last week gave us a glimpse of what to expect on a much larger scale in Chicago and across the country as the sheets are gradually pull off on public pensions.

Reality ultimately invalidates wrong assumptions. In the public pension world, that means taxpayer liabilities eventually will spike. Scapegoats will be found, fairly or not. Lawsuits will come. Heads must roll as anger erupts — all financial meltdowns are that way. Officeholders and voters bear primary responsibility, but that won’t matter.

Detroit’s mayor announced the startling (to some) conclusion that the city’s two pensions, even after liabilities were reduced in bankruptcy, face a long term shortfall of almost $500 million that wasn’t anticipated or incorporated in its reorganization plan. Somebody must be to blame and ought to pay, he figures, so he asked his legal department to look into who he can sue.

For more than a century in Chicago, a mere City Council committee — now tightly controlled by a single powerful alderman — has called the shots on all worker compensation claims, in recent years shelling out what experts say is a “staggering” amount of money.

A Chicago towing company that has for angered motorists for decades may be close to the end of the road.

The Chicago Tribune (trib.in/1pbTzL5 ) reports that the state’s commerce commission will soon vote on whether to yank Lincoln Towing Service’s license.

The company drew so many complaints of overcharging, illegal towing and otherwise discourteous behavior that its drivers were even immortalized in song as the “Lincoln Park Pirates” by the late folk singer Steve Goodman.

The Illinois State Board of Elections has undertaken an investigation into former state Representative and current Auditor General Frank Mautino’s campaign finance records.

Mautino, a Democrat, served as the representative for Illinois’ 76th District from 1991-2015. The district includes Hennepin, Ottawa, Streator, Peru, LaSalle, Oglesby and Spring Valley.

The probe stems from a complaint made by Dave Cooke, a retired nuclear plant employee from Streator. Cooke lodged the complaint after reading reports about Mautino’s campaign spending.

Governor Bruce Rauner is touring schools across the state touting his plans for increasing K through 12 education funding.

But a deeper look into the Governor’s budget proposal reveals an idea that could end up costing school districts and colleges.

The state’s pension costs are ballooning, costing the state upwards of $100 billion now. And in order to save some money, the Rauner Administration has proposed shifting some of those costs to educational institutions.