Emanuel: City Coming Up With Plan B For Pensions After High Court Ruling
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CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel said officials at City Hall are working on what they can do to shore up the city's underfunded public employee pension funds, after an Illinois Supreme Court ruling overturned the state's pension overhaul.
Immediately after the high court decision unanimously struck down a landmark state law that would have made sweeping changes to the state's pension funds, Emanuel expressed hope some of the city's proposals to lower its pension debt could survive a constitutional challenge.
However, the justices made it clear public employee pension benefits cannot be reduced under the law, regardless of the state's massive budget deficit. So the mayor said his administration is crafting a backup plan.
"We're still assessing the opinion; what it means both for the state, the city of Chicago, but I'm committed to making sure that people have a pension that they can retire on, in a way that doesn't overly burden taxpayers, and our ability to grow our economy as we do that," he said.
Emanuel took no more questions from reporters about the city's pension situation as he attended an unrelated event on Goose Island.
