Pension "Reforms"

We don't profess to be up-to-date on all the pension legislation currently being debated in Springfield, but we can understand how everyone, including people with no horse in the race, can get confused about pensions.

Tom Cross, the Oswego republican, who has no Chicago constituents in his district boundaries, is the stalking horse for Rahm's attempt to gut the pension system, and he's calling it "reform" to make it more palatable to the masses:

• A major overhaul of the way Illinois government handles pension benefits for current workers won a key victory Tuesday, but its fate remains uncertain because of heavy union resistance.
  
  House and Senate lawmakers also advanced proposals to crack down on pension abuses uncovered in Tribune/WGN-TV investigations, including efforts to undo a law that allowed two lobbyists to be eligible for sizable teacher pensions after substitute teaching for a single day.
  
  The sweeping pension changes, presented by House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan, would establish three retirement options for government workers to choose from going forward. State employees could keep their retirement benefit in place but pay more; take smaller benefits but pay no more; or set up a 401(k)-style plan that would give employees more control of their investments but also see them roll the dice on the markets.
  
  Employees would hang on to the benefits they've built up to this point, an attempt to address concerns that the state constitution doesn't allow pensions to be scaled back in midstream.

Who could possibly be against reform, right? But it isn't the rank-and-file causing the problems. It's assholes like these:

• In other action, the panel approved a bill that would rescind a 2007 law that allowed lobbyists Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli of the Illinois Federation of Teachers to get in line for sizable state teacher pensions. They merely had to work a single day as substitute teachers. They had no prior teaching experience, prompting sponsoring Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, to call their arrangement "obscene."

Lobbyists work a single day and manage to be pension eligible? This reminds us of the Huberman stunt where he attempted to remain part of the Police Pension Fund even though he had stopped being a police officer (as if he had ever started actually) years prior.

The Tribune has an entire series of articles about pension abuses, but interestingly, none of them seem to involve regular beat cops, rank-and-file firefighters or even front-line teachers. It's a lot of higher up, politically connected mucky-mucks from other unions feeding at the trough and screwing the supposed beneficiaries.