Gov. Pat Quinn says the conference committee working on pension restructuring should hurry up, which is what he has been saying since the committee’s inception.
When Quinn created the conference committee, he figured the committee would meet every day to come up with a solution, and have a proposal ready for a vote in the General Assembly within a week or two. That was June; this is September, and the committee is still evaluating concepts.
“It’s time for the commission to accelerate their work. The legislature will be coming back in next month, Oct. 22 is the time where they come back, but I’d like to see this done sooner than that, much sooner than that,” he said.
At issue is an unfunded pension liability of $100 billion. Quinn says the state can’t do anything else until it resolves this cloud over the Illinois economy.
In July, the governor vetoed pay for lawmakers, so they have missed two first-of-the-month paychecks so far. That veto is being challenged in court. The governor is also voluntarily foregoing his salary until the situation is resolved.
