Illinois lawmakers will be in Springfield on Tuesday for a special session on pension reform. Leaders of both parties say they’ve agreed on a plan to fund the system that’s currently $100 billion in the red, thanks to years of skipped payments. And late Monday afternoon, a bipartisan committee approved that plan. It will now head to the full House and Senate.

The proposal would slowly increase the retirement age and end the annual three percent compounded cost of living increase. Instead, that increase would be based on inflation and younger retirees wouldn’t get the pension bump every year. Employees would contribute one percent less and the state would make a $1 billion supplemental payment every year starting in 2020. If any payments are missed, the pension systems could sue the state.

The bill already has its share of critics. Dozens of state employees and retirees crammed into Representative John Bradley’s office in Marion Monday to rally against this pension reform proposal.

“We need for John to support the people that voted for him,” says Alan Latoza, President of AFSCME Retirees in Williamson and Franklin Counties.

Representative John Bradley wasn’t in his Marion office Monday, so the state employees and retirees left their message with his office staff telling Bradley not to support the latest version of pension reform.

“This has all been done in secret, and we don’t really have all the details yet. And we’re afraid that legislators will be asked and pressured to vote on a bill that they haven’t even read yet,” explains Latoza.

He says what they have heard has former state workers worried about their retirement plan, especially their cost of living adjustments, or COLAs. A leaked proposal shows the regular 3% compounded increase eliminated in favor of increases based on the consumer price index.

“They’re going to drastically limit them, and there’s talk that they may just freeze the COLAs until the state gets more money,” says Latoza.

That’s an idea John Tillman with the Illinois Policy Institute supports. He doesn’t like the newest pension proposal either. He says it doesn’t go far enough.

“We’ve been recommending for some time means testing the COLAs,” Tillman explains. “The COLAs should be left in place for people that are receiving a retirement below $30-thousand, we certainly understand that. But people receiving a retirement in excess of that should not be getting compounded COLAs or any type of COLA.”

Tillman and union members agree on one thing, the 1% reduction of employee contribution will only hurt the system.

“Throwing a percent at the employees, trying to make that look like they’re looking out for their interests. When in reality, that just defunds the pension even more,” says AFSCME Regional Director Eddie Caumiant.

We tried reaching Representative John Bradley through his Marion office; he never called us back.

This isn’t the first reform plan lawmakers have considered. Earlier this year the House and the Senate each passed their own pension bills, but couldn’t come to an agreement. But because the leadership from both parties, in both chambers hashed this out, several lawmakers have told News 3 they believe this proposal will pass.