Public pension plans don’t become poorly funded overnight. In most cases, it takes years of poor management for a plan’s financial standing to plummet.
Illinois, unsurprisingly, is a special case. Read more.
In one recurring dream, Stan North needs to fire his gun but the trigger won’t work. In another, he shoots, but the bullets come out in slow motion.
His blood pressure remains high, even with medication. He has trouble sleeping. He admits his wife finds him irritable at times, a hard man to live with.
Most of all, if a situation required him to fire his gun to save a life, the Rockford police officer told the Police Pension Board he’s not sure he could get the job done.
“I’d hesitate,” he said. “Seeing what I saw, the way this transpired with (Mark Anthony) Barmore, it was a sight I wish not to repeat.” Read more.
Being a retiree and getting a paycheck bigger than the ones earned on the job is not a perk for the few in Illinois. Given the right circumstances, it’s a mathematical certainty. Read more
When it comes to pensions in Illinois, a day can mean all the difference in the world.
Thanks to the eight-month span between Gov. Pat Quinn’s approval of a pension reform bill last spring and its implementation, any public worker hired in Illinois as late as Friday has been enrolled in a far more lucrative pension plan than those hired on or after Saturday. Read more.
CHICAGO — Municipal and union officials from throughout Illinois gathered in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss proposals to change the pension structure of public safety workers.
At one end of the divide stand city officials like Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, who said the benefits are too rich and that police officers and firefighters aren’t contributing enough of their salaries to fund them. On the other end are police and fire unions, who say poor financial investing and low market returns are to blame. Read more.
Read my tweets from the event here.
Sean F. Driscoll 