Tag: Ty Fahner

Former Illinois Attorney General: Pension Reform “Single Most Important” Issue Facing Illinois

Illinois capitol building

Ty Fahner, president of the Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago and former Illinois attorney general, has been pushing Illinois lawmakers for months to come up with a “Plan B” for pension reform.

He contends that it’s likely the Illinois Supreme Court will overturn the state’s pension reform law. And if it does, Illinois has no contingency plan in place.

In a column in the Belleville News-Democrat, Fahner says of pension reform: “no issue of greater importance to Illinois’ future”. He writes:

What if?

It’s the single most important question that Illinois residents should be asking, and candidates for office should be answering.

Yet as Election Day approaches, too few are asking about the most critical issue facing the state.

What if the Illinois Supreme Court rejects pension reform?

Illinois needs an open and honest conversation about the potential impact this decision could have on the state and its citizens. Regardless of the outcome, the consequences are far-reaching and voters deserve to know whats at stake.

This is about what is good for the state and its future. Illinois needs to be in a position to grow its economy, create jobs for Illinois residents, invest in education and infrastructure and provide for the most vulnerable among us. The pension law decision will have a sweeping impact that will touch every Illinois resident in one way or another.

Illinois can no longer kick the can down the road. Half measures will not suffice. We need to address these issues now. Even if the law is upheld, we are still lagging virtually every state in the nation. All of the answers to these questions will take time to develop, win approval from the General Assembly and implement. Many of the social services already have been cut to the bone and educational funding reduced by $2.7 billion since 2009 — what is the plan?

[…]

With the future of pension reform hanging in the balance, now is the time to ask the question.

What if?

No issue is of greater importance to Illinois’ future.

And if the Supreme Court does reject the state’s pension reform law, Fahner writes:

If the court rejects the law, $145 billion in state contributions is immediately added to the taxpayer tab over the next 30 years. Whether through even more tax hikes or continued service cuts, that money has to be accounted for. We would pay a lot more for a lot less in return.

Property taxes could rise to the highest in the nation. School districts could face further budget strain. Tens of thousands of seniors, children and mentally ill could face significant reductions, if not loss, of the state assistance on which they rely. The security of the pension systems themselves would be jeopardized.

Illinois needs this conversation. The sad truth is that all of the state”s biggest problems are directly tied to the pension crisis, which has already resulted in paralyzing tax hikes, steep cuts to social services, unreasonable burdens on students and the loss of jobs to neighboring states. Already, Illinois ranks last or near last among the states on every economic indicator from unemployment, to property taxes, to jobs climate and state support for education.

Read the entire column here.

Former Illinois Attorney General Pushes For “Plan B” On Pension Reform

Flag of IllinoisIn all likelihood, a judgment on the constitutionality of Illinois’ 2013 pension reform law will in the next six months.

Former Illinois attorney general Ty Fahner doesn’t want the state to be blindsided by the result. If the law is overturned, he says, there needs to be another plan in place.

Fahner is asking lawmakers from around the state to start developing alternate reform ideas. From the News-Gazette:

“I still hope and expect, I truly do, that the court may find Senate Bill 1 constitutional. Whether that’s a false hope or not, I need to make the point that even if they do, after all of that, we’re still in terrible shape as a state,” Fahner said. “If they overturn it, there will be incredible hardship, which is what we are trying to get people to focus on now, not because it will change their decision, but I think there has to be a debate, a discussion, right now, because if you wait until the spring when the court finally rules, it’s going to be a little bit too late.

“They’re going to be in the middle of the budget at the end of the session. Whether it’s Quinn or Rauner, they’re going to have a difficult time. I think they need to talk now.”

He’s encouraging candidates for governor and the Legislature to address the question, and wants voters to ask them about it.

“That’s all we’re trying to do with this,” said Fahner, whose group is pushing what it calls a “What If?” initiative. “It’s so profound and the damages could be so terrible that people have to think about it now and not just give a political reaction later that, ‘We’ll have to sort it out.'”

State Rep. Adam Brown, R-Champaign, said he was “more than happy to be a part of the conversation” about an alternative pension plan.

“But at this point, there are just too many unknowns,” he said.

[…]

[Senate President John] Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson advised patience.

“It has been a long struggle to get a law through the General Assembly and now a case to the courts,” he said. “Given the complexity of the issue and the difficulty in gettting to this point, we should now see what the courts have to say. There are a lot of people with a lot of opinions, but they aren’t on the Illinois Supreme Court, and it is the justices who will ultimately tell us what can and cannot be done.

“At this point the case is still before the trial court, so it seems a bit premature to already be predicting its demise. Let’s let the judiciary do its job.”

As for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner’s proposal that state employees be moved into 401(k)-style, Fahner said, “The idea of a 401(k) is great, but I’m not sure it would work in the current situation.”

Fauher also questions whether the reform law goes far enough. From the News-Gazette:

“[The law] only scratches the surface of the state’s problems. We also have to look at what drives jobs from the state. We’ve got to do a lot to make this a more jobs-friendly state.”

This year, he said, 26 percent of the state budget is devoted to pension payments. By 2024, pension payments would eat up a third of the budget.

He said that would lead to higher property taxes, fewer teachers and less money for social services.

“A lot of people say this isn’t a problem, all you do is just raise more taxes. This goes back to the jobs issue. We could raise taxes again, but we already know what the job losses have been,” Fahner said. “We’re losing jobs because it’s a very hostile work environment with regulations and everything else. If you have less jobs, you have less people to pay the taxes which fund all of these needs, and that’s what is happening to us.”

Governor Pat Quinn has said he doesn’t have a “plan B” in place if the law is deemed unconstitutional.