Illinois legislators Friday afternoon received a fact sheet outlining many of the details in the pension reform deal agreed to on Wednesday by their leaders, the deal said to save taxpayers $160 billion over the next 30 years.
The document (check it out at the end of this post) generally follows the lines of what I reported on Wednesday. But it goes into some more specifics:
Overall, the proposal would establish an actuarially sound schedule to achieve 100 percent funding of the state’s pension systems by 2044. The needed contributions would be “entry age normal,” meaning pretty much level from year to year.
The state will continue what it’s paying now for pensions, but would be required to make some additional payments. That will be $1 billion a year starting in fiscal 2019, plus 10 percent of the savings from reduced benefits starting in fiscal 2016. Both will continue until the systems reach 100 percent funding and will be guaranteed, with the Illinois Supreme Court authorized to compel payment in a given year if the state balks.
2 KEY BENEFIT REDUCERS
As previously reported, employees will contribute 1 percentage point less of their salary toward their retirement. But benefits would be reduced in two key ways.
One, employees now under age 45 would have to work as long as five years more to get their benefit. For each year under age 45, the employee would have to work an additional four months.
Two, annual cost-of-living pension adjustments — COLAs — would apply only to that portion of a pension equal to years of experience times $1,000. For example, a 25-year government veteran with a $50,000 pension would get a COLA on just half of their pension, $25,000. The multiplier would be $800, rather than $1,000, for those who also get Social Security.
Also, current employees would not get any COLA at all in some years, depending on their age. Workers 50 or older would miss one annual COLA; those under 43 would miss five annual COLAs.
Pensions would apply only to a certain amount of salary, currently a maximum $109,971, but that figure would rise some with inflation.
ABUSE CHECK
In an effort to curb abuse, union leaders would not be able to also draw a state pension. And new hires would not be able to count sick days or vacation time toward that $109,971 cap. The latter provision would apply not only to the state’s major pension funds but also those of Cook County and Chicago Public Schools.
Finally, up to 5 percent of state workers would be allowed to shift to a defined-contribution, 401(k)-style system in which they’d manage their own benefits, rather than drawing a pension.
The latter clause already is drawing fire from some conservatives, who’d like to get the state out of the pension business.
In a statement, one conservative think tank, the Illinois Policy Institute, says the proposed deal is “not enough” to solve the state’s problems.
As written, the proposal would immediately reduce unfunded liability in the state’s pension funds only from $100 billion to $83 billion, institute CEO John Tillman said. COLAs should apply only to those whose entire pension is below $30,000, he said, and perhaps frozen entirely for some years. And no government worker should be allowed to retire before the Social Security age, he added.
Unions already have expressed opposition to the proposal for being too strong.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on Tuesday.