Chicago Goes to Court This Week in Defense of Pension Changes

On Thursday, the city of Chicago will begin defending its recent pension changes in front of a judge.

The city is tasked with convincing the judge that the reforms are constitutional – even though they are likely to result in benefit reductions.

More from Reuters:

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak will hold a hearing on motions by city unions and retirees to overturn a law for Chicago’s municipal and laborers’ systems that took effect Jan. 1.

That law requires Chicago and affected workers to increase their pension contributions and replaces an automatic 3 percent annual cost-of-living increase for retirees to one tied to inflation.

Opponents of the law base their argument on the high court’s May decision that found the state constitution gives public sector workers iron-clad protection against pension benefit cuts.

Chicago contends in court filings that the law “takes two pension funds on a path toward inevitable insolvency and ensures that they will ultimately be fully funded primarily through a massive influx of new city funding.”

The city is defending the law by saying that, in absence of the changes, the two pension funds in question would run out of money in a decade.

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