Trib Editorial----Focus, Governor

What's a governor to do? Having given the state's largest public employee union a no-layoff pledge until mid-2012, Pat Quinn is in a bind. So he has pursued another way of trimming payroll costs: He's offering to give members of the Illinois State Police early raises if they retire by Dec. 31.

Correction: Quinn is doing a favor for his own beleaguered budget by shifting part of his burden to … the state's pension system. Yes, the same state pension system that is pathetically underfunded. Worst in the nation, in fact. Too many governors have given too many sweeteners to too many public employees. The state's unfunded retirement obligations — overly generous pensions and overly generous retiree health care — total an estimated $130 billion that doesn't show up in the state budget. That equals about a half-decade of spending from the state's general operating funds.

In sum: Illinois is the poster child for how to run a pension scheme into the ground — and to stick future governors and taxpayers with the costs. Yet Quinn is handing that overwhelmed system an anticipated 70 to 90 more retirees who'll arrive bearing still another pension sweetener.

To be eligible for Quinn's offer, troopers need to be 50 years old with 25 years of service, or 55 years old with 20 years of service. They can use accumulated time-off credits to help satisfy their years-of-service requirements. And, on their last day of work in 2010, they'll receive 6 percent cost-of-living raises that are scheduled for calendar 2011.

Age 50? Think about that. Some of these retirees may spend the entire second halves of their lives — the next 50 or more years — drawing pensions from Illinois taxpayers. And while we have you: Has anyone offered you a 6 percent cost-of-living increase? In this time of low inflation? We didn't think so.

The governor's office told us Tuesday that many of these senior troopers were expected to retire as soon as they received their cost-of-living raises next year. Makes sense: Sticking around for those raises would feather their pension calculations with the highest possible final salary. Under this deal, the retirees don't have to work at all next year — and they get the juicier pension benefits pronto. In return, the state saves money by offloading these high salaries: If 70 percent of the eligible troopers accept Quinn's offer, the state expects to save about $500,000 in payroll expense.

If that were the end of it, Quinn's offer might make sense. But the governor's office couldn't provide one crucial number: What will the troopers' early arrival cost the state pension system? Taxpayers are on the hook for that, too, just as they are for the budget. We'll bet the governor lunch at any place of his choosing that he's shifting way more than $500,000 in burdens from his budget to the failing, flailing pension system.

In the big picture, we're not talking about a lot of money. Of course, that same lame excuse — In the big picture, we're not talking about a lot of money — is precisely how previous Illinois governors justified crippling the pension system. Those governors didn't have enough state revenue to buy labor peace with salary money, so they bought it with pension giveaways. Remember, the long-term health of the pension system is always future governors' problem.

Gov. Quinn, enough with special deals that leave taxpayers even more burdened than they were. Your state is broke, Illinois' pension system soon enough will be broke, and you need to stop the bleeding in both of those realms. Please, Governor, focus.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-quinn-20101207,0,1353372.story