Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton have filed suit against Gov. Pat Quinn over his decision to withhold legislator pay until lawmakers produce a bill on pension reform.
Former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins will not look into the allegations of patronage and other charges put forth by Metra's former CEO Alex Clifford, the commuter rail agency said in a statement Monday.
Emotions ran high at State Sen. Daniel Biss’ (D-Evanston) public
meeting on pension reform that brought out some 200 retirees, state
workers and concerned Illinois residents Sunday afternoon in Evanston.
During
the spring legislative session, the Illinois legislature fumbled on a
measure that would help address the state’s nearly $100 billion in
pension debt, which threatens funding for education and other core
services. The state’s failure to pay its share of pension payments in
the past is largely to blame for the ballooning debt.
Biss sits
on the Illinois General Assembly’s 10-member pension conference
committee, which was put in place in June to cobble together a compromise
bill.
Those at the meeting pressed the senator on when the group
would have its pension proposal ready. And they were also adamant about
bringing in more state revenue by closing corporate tax loopholes and
implementing a progressive income tax in Illinois.
“We have a
revenue problem, not a pension problem,” Bloomingdale resident Karl
Gabbey said at the meeting. “Please do not blame the public employees ... public employees are taxpayers too just like anybody else.”
After more than four hours of discussion, the Illinois General
Assembly’s pension conference committee concluded their first public
hearing Thursday with no clear plan for resolving the state’s pension
crisis.
The We Are One Coalition of Illinois labor unions say they still back the pension bill proposed by Senate President John Cullerton, who worked with the group to draft the legislation.
Emotions ran high at State Sen. Daniel Biss’ (D-Evanston) public
meeting on pension reform that brought out some 200 retirees, state
workers and concerned Illinois residents Sunday afternoon in Evanston.