POLL: Who Is To Blame For Illinois' Pension Mess?

Illinois' inability to deal with its pension problems led Standard & Poor to drop the state's bond rating this week, the Washington Post reported.

The state's unfunded pension liability has surpassed $80 billion, WGN TV reported. The TV station reported that $12 million is added to that liability every day.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois has the second worst credit rating of any state in the country. Only California is worse and Standard & Poor believes that state is headed in the right direction. The Tribune reported that Illinois is not – noting that the unfunded pension liability is on track to hit $93 billion by next summer.

The Tribune reported that Quinn has been pushing for reforms, but the legislature has been unable to agree about what should be done. The newspaper noted that Quinn might use his veto of gambling expansion in the state as a way to push the legislature to deal with the issue.

In July, a Quinn plan to have workers and retirees relinquish an annual automatic 3-percent cost-of-living increase failed, the Sun-Times reported. In August, the Legislature failed to take action on several proposals meant to fix the problem.