City Club of Chicago Pension Panel, September 24, 2015

This panel features Eric M. Madiar, among others:

"Eric M. Madiar, a Springfield attorney and lobbyist who researched pensions extensively while serving as chief counsel to Senate President John Cullerton, emphasized that the chronic, long-term failure of the General Assembly to make adequate payments to the pensions was the main cause of the current situation:

'Pension funding has historically been a political football and something not to worry about until tomorrow. And so past governors and General Assemblies really only made the contributions after they had made contributions on things that were politically popular… Simply put, pension funding for the system was shortchanged really as a way to stave off the pain of tax increases or service cuts.'

'Our current pension disaster cannot be blamed on benefit increases or salary increases. Between 1985 and 2014 pension unfunded liabilities grew by $97 billion. Benefit increases only account for 8 percent or $8 billion of that growth. Pay increases were actually less than what actuaries assumed they would be and actually helped bring down the unfunded liabilities by about $1.3 billion. The state’s failure to properly fund the pension system, however, accounts for 49 percent, or ($47 billion) of that growth. So simply put, the main reason we are in this mess is because of insufficient pension contributions'" (Reboot Illinois).

Eric M. Madiar & Terrence J. Sheahan, Illinois’ New Anti-SLAPP Statute, 96 Ill. B. J. 620 (2008). 

Eric M. Madiar et al, Illinois’ Freedom of Information and Open Meetings Acts (Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education 2011 & 2013) (general editor and author of Chapter 3).

Eric M. Madiar, Is Welching on Public Pension Promises an Option for Illinois? An Analysis of Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution, 48 John Marshall Law Review 167 (Fall 2014).  

Eric M. Madiar, Public Pension Benefits Under Siege: Does State Law Facilitate or Block Recent Efforts to Cut the Pension Benefits of Public Servants? 27 ABA J. Labor & Employment L. 179 (Winter 2012). 

Eric M. Madiar, Illinois Public Pension Reform: What’s Past Is Prologue, 31 Ill. Pub. Employee Labor Report (Summer 2014).