Rauner supports Democrat's pension plan with union measure
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CHICAGO (AP) — Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Thursday that he would support a top Democrat's proposal to tackle Illinois' pension crisis, as long as it includes a union-weakening provision aimed at collective bargaining.
The governor told reporters at his downtown Chicago office that he'd spoken to Senate President John Cullerton and agreed to move forward with a plan that offers state workers a choice on reduced benefits. However, both sides quickly disputed the specifics of the proposal they discussed.
Cullerton, who wasn't at the news conference, said in a statement that he didn't support Rauner's position on collective bargaining. Rauner's administration argued it was a "core" principle of Cullerton's plan and lawyers on both sides had agreed it was necessary to withstand a legal challenge.
"We apparently still have a fundamental disagreement over the role of collective bargaining in this process, in the sense that I think collective bargaining should continue to exist and the governor does not," Cullerton said in a statement.
Since 2013, Cullerton has floated some version of a plan to let workers choose between keeping cost-of-living increases in retirement and counting future raises when figuring retirement benefits. He's said the choice makes the plan more likely to pass constitutional muster. Last year the Illinois Supreme Court threw out another 2013 overhaul, saying it violated a constitutional clause that said benefits can't be reduced.
Rauner has supported such a "consideration" model before but said Thursday that he'd tweak it, ensuring that discussion of wage increases be removed from the collective bargaining process. In a statement, spokesman Lance Trover said Rauner's administration spent weeks negotiating language and if Cullerton didn't agree he should introduce new legislation for the governor to consider.
"In order for President Cullerton's bill to be constitutional, salary increases have to be taken out of collective bargaining. This is a key point," Rauner said. "Salary increases come out of collective bargaining so the union has nothing to do with it in the future."
A coalition of unions involved in negotiating the Cullerton bill blasted Rauner's statements as an attack.
"Another day, another hostage for Governor Rauner in his war on the working people of Illinois," said a statement from the We Are One Illinois coalition.
Illinois has the worst-funded pension system of any U.S. state and is roughly $111 billion in debt. There's been little progress since the state high court's decision because of budget gridlock. Rauner and legislative Democrats can't agree on a spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1.
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Follow Sophia Tareen at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen .
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Associated Press writer Sara Burnett contributed to this report.