Democrats, Republicans, unions: A history of the bad pension decisions that built a crisis: Your Reboot Illinois Daily Tip-Off

BAD DECISIONS Democrats approved a $2 billion "pension holiday." Unions supported it. A Republican governor signed the bill that created the greatest driver of spiraling pension costs. That's just a tiny part of the legacy of bad decision-making over the decades that built today's $100 billion pension crisis. Everyone played their part in this epic drama. We can't afford another bad decision. We explain here.

LEARNING FROM HISTORY May 29, 2005, is a day that will live in Illinois pension history infamy. On that Memorial Day weekend Sunday, the General Assembly approved reducing payments to the state pension systems by $2 billion so it could use the money to balance the state budget. The warnings were all there: "You are playing with fire, you are playing with potential bankruptcy of the pension systems," reads one of many quotes contained in this collection of news stories from back then. Public employee unions supported the bill, even offering to testify on its behalf. As we mentioned earlier, bad decisions by lots of players built today's crisis. (We've got a visual version of the pension crisis timeline in this infographic.)

EXPERT VIEW No one has studied the Illinois pension crisis more thoroughly, or sounded the warning of impending disaster more authoritatively, than Civic Federation President Laurence Msall. When he speaks, we'd all do well to listen. Or, in the case of our Q&A with Msall today, to read.

TOP FIVE In case you missed it, here are the Top 5 most popular posts this week on rebootillinois.com:

1. A scorecard for the 2014 race for governor
2. Abdul-Hakim Shabazz: $1B tax cut? Surplus? I must be in Indiana
3. Reboot Illinois/CHANGE Illinois! event notice on redistricting town hall meeting at Bradley University
4. Infographic: Analysis of two pension bills before Illinois General Assembly
5. Editorial: Let's hope DuPage victory becomes a statewide win

ENDING THE ILLINOIS INCUMBENT PROTECTION PROGRAM Ever wonder why Statehouse incumbents win 97 percent of the time? It's easy when your district has been carefully drawn to keep you in and the opposing party out. That's a formula for complacency and corruption. We don't like this system and we've joined the CHANGE Illinois! coalition to get party bosses out of the process. Join us next week at Bradley University to learn more about this initiative. Please sign up here and join us. If you can't be there, go here to learn more about this important effort.

DAILY TIP-OFF Rich Miller, publisher of the political newsletter Capitol Fax and its blog, begins his Chicago Sun-Times column today with this line: "How can you be a leader if nobody is following you?" He maintains that while Gov. Pat Quinn is honest and well-intentioned, he's not an effective leader when it comes to getting things done in Springfield. The governor's office had a pointed reply. It begins with, "Give me a break," and goes on from there. If Quinn faces a challenge in the Democratic primary, this no doubt will be an issue.

Now that the Chicago School Board made its decision to close 50 schools, parents of 27,000 students are dealing with the immediate fallout. The Sun-Times reports on the enrollment process for students of closed schools, which runs through next week.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has set a July hearing date for the Chicago Teachers Union's lawsuits that call for a halt to all school closings. Chicago Public Schools is seeking to have the suits dismissed.

While some may question his leadership, Gov. Pat Quinn is leading the charge to end some corporate tax breaks that now cost the state $450 million in lost tax money. Put another way, that's a little more than the amount likely to be cut from education spending next year. Business groups oppose ending these breaks. A House committee approved Quinn's bill.

We have links to these and other Illinois news stories in the Daily Tip-Off section of our website. 

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