Reality Doesn't Care if a Democrat is in Office

The problem with state budgets, and excessive pension costs isn't only an issue in states with Republican governors. Quinn looks at teacher pensions as address nears - CBS News

Pat Quinn, Democrat and Governor of Illinois - he took over for Blagojevich after he was ousted - is having a problem with pensions in the state of Illinois. And the unions aren't happy about it.

Gov. Pat Quinn, responding to a dire new report on state finances Monday, said more clearly than ever that he wants schools and universities to help pay for their employees' retirement costs.

A statement from Quinn's budget office said the practice of state government paying for the retirement of downstate teachers and professors "requires careful examination and reform" because "employers need to have a stake in funding their own employees' pension costs."

Apparently Illinois State Universities (and some downstate schools) don't have to worry about those pesky pensions.

Oh, and Quinn also wants "aggressive" Medicaid restructuring.

Retirement and Medicaid costs were two of the biggest factors in a report Monday from the Civic Federation that says state government's backlog of unpaid bills could nearly quadruple — from $9.2 billion to $34.8 billion — over the next five years unless officials take action.

That's right, the state of Illinois is already 9 billion dollars behind on various payments to people. (Anybody who lends them money at this point should go to Google, and do a search on Greek Sovereign Debt.)

A major state-employee union sharply criticized the [report].

That would be AFSCME, the government-employee union. If state and local governments have to deal with pensions, and budgetary reality, well eventually they are going to move on from teachers and run over AFSCME.