Pensions Under Attack in Illinois
Think your hard-earned pension is guaranteed? If you live in Illinois, think again.
According to the Chicago Tribune, lawyers for that state’s government are asking the Illinois Supreme Court to reinstate a controversial law curbing public employee pensions, claiming that constitutional protections of retirement benefits are not absolute.
Their argument? The government’s so-called emergency police powers—which include the ability to take action to ensure the functions of government—take priority over the protections of the pension clause contained in the Illinois Constitution, which prevent public retirement benefits from being “diminished or impaired” to be “absolute and without exception.”