 Illinois reformed its public employee pensions
last March when the
General Assembly passed legislation that created a "two-tier"
pension system.
However, Wisconsin has added collective bargaining rights to the
mix, muddying the waters.Amid widespread protest, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker proposed a budget repair bill that would require public
workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance
and reduce their collective bargaining rights.
Wisconsin Democratic senators have fled the Capitol in protest of
the repeal of most collective bargaining rights, leaving the rest of
the GOP-led legislature to ponder how to close the state's $136.7
million budget deficit for the current year.
Walker's plan passed the Assembly chamber early Friday morning
but still needs to clear the Senate before hitting Walker's desk for
his signature.
Illinois' reforms allow current employees to keep their existing
pension plan, changing the rules only for new employees hired after
Jan. 1. The retirement age increased to 67, maximum salaries were
capped at $106,800, and payouts became based on a worker's highest
salary during eight consecutive years of the last 10.
At the time, Illinois was facing a roughly $13 billion budget
deficit. Although the measure angered unions, it was passed and
ratified without much legislative opposition -- 92-17 in the House
and 48-6 in the Senate.
Jim Nowlan, a research fellow at the Institute of Government &
Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
attributes the diverging reactions from each state to a contrasting
political climate.
"The speaker of the (Illinois) House did strike very quickly last
year and surprised the public employee unions, which did mount some
opposition," Nowlan said.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, pushed the
measure through in a single day.
Nowlan attributes the lack of comparable opposition to a
Democratic majority in the Illinois legislature -- typically backed
by labor unions -- that led the charge for pension reform. He likened
Madigan's Democratic push to that of the late Republican President
Richard Nixon's visit to China.
"Only President Nixon could go to China back in his
administration. A Democratic president would not have been able to
get away with going to China to face and meet with the Communist
leader of the world," Nowlan said.
In contrast, Wisconsin Republicans hold majorities in both the
House and Senate. Walker, also a Republican, has made national news
recently for moving to restrict union collective bargaining rights.
Illinois state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, who recalls last
year's pension reforms, said he approves of how Wisconsin
Republicans are handling the current situation.
"Illinois is just putting off for a few months, maybe a year, what
is inevitably going to be some painful decisions, because of the
fact they refused to make small improvements over the last few
years," Syverson said.
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David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, said the widespread
protests aren't surprising considering the financial crisis and
recent political turnover in Wisconsin leadership.
"It's one thing to raise questions about the level of benefits,
about the numbers of state workers, and it's another thing to
question whether unions really have a right to exist. So that's
bound to spark a great deal of militancy on the part of labor
leaders," Yepsen said.
Walker has threatened layoffs of state workers if his budget repair
bill doesn't pass within the next few days.
Anders Lindall, a spokesman for the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees, said an attack on public unions is
an attack on middle-class America.
"There is no good public policy justification for any of these
attacks on vital services that teachers, firefighters, police
officers, nurses and public service workers provide to the state of
Illinois," said Lindall.
Like the proposal itself, even Wisconsin's future seems to be a
place of contention.
"I think Wisconsin, at the end of the day, is going to pay a
terrible price for this," said Yepsen, from the Simon Institute. "The
Republicans may well win in the short term, but they are going to
create levels of personal animosity that will make it difficult for
their policymakers to work together. They're going to create levels
of union militancy that's going to affect the delivery of public
services.
Syverson, the Rockford senator, however, had a more positive
outlook.
"What's going to happen a year from now is that people are going
to look back and say the tough decision that Wisconsin made as
regard to their budget has made them financially sound," Syverson
said. "Their bond rating is going to be good. They're going to be
attracting more business (and) more jobs because they're going to be
a financially sound state."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MELISSA LEU]
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