SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday backed the debtconsolidation of regional cops and firemen pension systems, a uncommon triumph in a yearslong fight to discover an response to the state’s besieged retirement accounts.
The court’s consentaneous viewpoint declined declares by 3 lots working and retired cops officers and firemens from throughout the state that the merger of 649 different systems into 2 statewide accounts broke the state constitution’s warranty that advantages “shall not be decreased or impaired.”
For years, that expression hasactually flummoxed guvs and legislatures attempting to cut their method past years of underfunding the retirement programs. Statewide pension systems covering instructors, university staffmembers, state workers, judges and those working for the General Assembly are $141 billion shy of what’s been assured those present and retired employees. In 2015, the Supreme Court reversed legislators’ money-saving overhaul authorized 2 years earlier.
Friday’s ruling, which does not impact pension programs in Cook County, which consistsof Chicago, offers with a law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in late 2019 meant to increase financialinvestment power and cut administrative costs for hundreds of community funds. The Democratic guv renowned the abnormally excellent pension news.
“We ushered in a brand-new age of accountable financial management, one element of which hasactually been combining over 600 regional pension systems to boost returns and lower costs, lowering the bur