CHICAGO - Illinois businesses and taxpayers shouldn't be surprised if no pension solution is agreed upon during this week's veto session. After all, there's no big hurry.
First, the courts threw out Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's imposed legislators' salary sequester and they're getting paid on time now. Second, Senate President John Cullerton said Sunday the pension debt isn't a "crisis."
"People really misunderstand the nature of this whole problem. Quite frankly, I don't think you can use the word 'crisis' to describe it at the state level," Cullerton said in an interview on WGN-AM radio.
"It's something we have to deal with, but it's not something that we're on the verge of bankruptcy on," Cullerton said.
Really, the Illinois Republican Senate replied via Twitter Monday morning.
"IL Senate President says pensions aren't a crisis. He must know something the credit rating firms don't," they wrote. Indeed, Illinois' credit rating is the lowest in the nation, and the reason given for the miserable rate causing higher interest rates for taxpayers to pay. Estimates are interest alone is costing Illinois $17 Million per day.
The reason for Cullerton's lackadaisical attitude about the state's pension obligations may be that Illinois Democrats are gathering steam towards an effort to shift Illinois from a flat tax state to a graduated tax scale.
Indeed, the IL Senate GOP tweeted, "More ILDem tax hikes coming?"
