Ken Previti reports that the Illinois Supreme Coutrt unanimously struck down the law cutting teachers’ pensions. See:
“Justice Lloyd Karmeier writing for the court. ‘It is our obligation, however, just as it is theirs, to ensure that the law is followed. That is true at all times. It is especially important in times of crisis when, as this case demonstrates, even clear principles and long-standing precedent are threatened. Crisis is not an excuse to abandon the rule of law.’
(This) violates the state’s constitutional clause that pension benefits ‘shall not be diminished or impaired,’ the Supreme Court affirmed Friday.”
– “Pensions & Investments Online”
Open the link to see a picture of Ken and his wife celebrating.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Finally! Some sense.
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Where’s the money gonna’ come from?
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Well, the pension funds would immediately reap billions – yes, that’s “billions” with a “b” – by getting rid the politically-juiced hedge fund and private equity parasites who receive huge fees for sub-par performance.
Add a .05% financial transaction tax, which would only be felt by speculators and the 1%, and school and pension-fending problems evaporate.
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The money IS there. The easiest example of crisis creation for profit is the fact that nine of the largest corporations in Illinois are allowed to keep all of their employees’ state income taxes. Ex-Gov. Quinn (D) and present Gov. Rauner (R) have signed bills allowing the 5% (in previous years) and 3.5% (presently) state income tax of all of their employees to be kept as some form of “thank-you” for donating to the election campaigns of both gubernatorial thieves. Last year this one give-away alone totalled over $200,000,000. Google the info for yourself, because most people find this hard to believe.
By the way, there are many other give-aways of Illinois tax money to billionaire buddies and corporate entities that Illinois politicos practice. Remember that as Illinois’s bond ratings are lowered, the corporate investors collect higher interest rates. Last year alone, the state’s payments for pensions was approximately 2/3 interest payments.
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Or, the federal government could bail out the pensions of middle class Americans, with taxes collected from the offshore profits of companies like Microsoft.
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AELC is certain to have model legislation that blocks judicial rulings on pensions.
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It appears that the best way to stop the edudeformers’ machinations will be through the court system.
I have contended for many years now that it should be adjudicated as discriminatory in the same way as discrimination due to other out of the individual’s control-skin color, race, sexual orientation and/or religious beliefs (yes those are out of the control of an individual child as they have no choice but to follow what their parents do until they are quite a bit older) to sort and separate students via standardized testing, rewarding a few and sanctioning many other innocents-students. An individual does not choose his/her genetics nor upbringing and since there is a wide span of both of those characteristics between individuals that to reward and punish (the standardized testing regime) based upon COMPLETELY INVALID test results should be judged unconstitutional.
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among not between individuals
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I am incorporating this in my fairness hearing letter since RI will soon see the judiciary force upon us retirees in the pension system (working teachers and state workers, too) to a Settlement Agreement I did not want nor ask for. In fact I was thrown off the AFT-R Board after being on it for 8 years helping my fellow teachers because I did not support the first agreement. It was an insult to me losing my 3% COLA to which I rendered 30 years of service to the state and they turn around and don’t honor their promise to me in an implied contract. I saw that the AFT National never did help us even when the union was going to court because they felt if decision was not to their likng, every penson in the ocuntry would get screwed. And you can tell that to your pal Randi who I no longer respect. She has become a slave to the higher up in the political world and i am not along who shares this view about her. who never did support us when the lousy money manager called Raimondo , now the corporatist 1% governor trying to shove down a baseball stadium scam down our throats wrote the RI Pension reform of 2011 which by the way is no real savings but that is another story in itself. And because Raimondo is a Wall St hedge fund John Arnold hypocrite she will make a deal because of four Presidents pushing for the deal.. You have Larry Lucchino the president of the Boston Red Sox, scam artist Skeffington president of Pawtucket Red Sox Terry Murray, President of the old Fleet Bank-a rip off banker who made millions in the Gov Carcieri years Tom Ryan, president of CVS with no ethics. These four wealthy men have more money than they know what to do with but they won’t spend their money ..they want to spend (OPM) (probably by June before the General Assembly goes home for the summer-t hey got it made…they work from Jan 6 to June!)other people’s money-taxpayers like me…They ought to be ashamed of themselves. They took away my COLA only to pay Raimondo’s hedgefund investors their 4.5% and lost us a billion dollars in 2 years with her poor treasury money management skills. So when I saw this story, I jumped for joy and hope Judge Taft Carter reads the decision -the written opinion of fifth district justice Karmeier
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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I am a teacher in Illinois and I am proud of the Supreme Court stating the plain-spoken words of the IL constitution. Here Here!!
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Illinois is lucky to have an honest judge.
The usual oligarchs, corporations and plutocrats funded a seminar, IMO, to convince judges that the rule of the 1%, should apply to pension contracts. David Sirota, at International Business Times, and Huffpo, reported on it, in April.
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