After a legislative session in which lawmakers stuck their collective head so far down a hole on pension reform that an ostrich would blush, there are no easy outs, only pain both for legislators and the state as a whole.
The collective failure to deal with Illinois’ single most important government problem involved just about everybody in Springfield on both sides of the party aisle, though some more than others. With the 2014 elections now looming and supermajority vote requirements in effect, it now will be more difficult, not less, than it would have been before June 1 to fill an at least $100 billion hole in the state’s retirement accounts.