Illinois pension reform talks put on hold - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

It was only a few weeks ago that Gov. Pat Quinn predicted the General Assembly would pass retirement reform legislation this month. But a funny thing happened on the way to that Special Session.

"It's beyond me how you can let this one issue hold up a fundamental overhaul of our public pension system that has been in the waiting for three decades." Gov. Pat Quinn said.

That "one issue," though, is a big one. The governor is proposing to end the free ride for downstate and suburban school boards on teacher pensions. Unlike Chicago, they now pay nothing for teacher pensions and fear they might be forced to raise property taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars.

A spokeswoman for Lemont's Republican Sen. Christine Radogno suggested the teacher pension cost-shift was a clever ploy by Chicago Democrats. "Democratic leaders don't want real pension reform to happen. We don't think they ever did, " the spokeswoman said.

But with investment agencies threatening to slash the state's credit rating, pressure is growing on state officials to take action. The governor's offered to let local school districts phase in their new pension responsibilities over a dozen years or more and claimed it would not raise property taxes.

"The pension reform will save them money. And so when you phase in this requirement of actually having to pay for it over a long period of time, then it really has no impact on their budget over a reasonable period of time," Gov. Pat Quinn said.

Several Springfield insiders said privately that the prospects for a pre-election compromise were fading fast.