Amendment to SB512: Contributions by Members

Amendment SB512 (Nov. 7, 2011) pages 271-73
From (40 ILCS 5/16-152) (from Ch. 108 1/2, par. 16-152)
Sec. 16-152. Contributions by members:

…Beginning July 1, 2013, all members shall be required to make the following contributions:

(1) Members who elect the traditional benefit package provided under paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Section 16-133.6 of this Code shall contribute:

(A) In fiscal year 2014, fiscal year 2015, and fiscal year 2016, an amount equal to 13.77% of salary.
(B) In fiscal year 2017 and in each fiscal year thereafter, a percentage of salary equal to the actuarially determined fiscal year 2017 normal cost of the traditional benefit package, minus contributions by the State of Illinois in fiscal year 2017 under subsection (a) of Section 16-158.2, provided that no member's contribution shall be less than 6% or more than 15.77% of salary. The System shall certify the actuarially determined fiscal year 2017 normal cost of the traditional benefit package and the amount of the required member contribution.

(2) In fiscal year 2014 and in each fiscal year thereafter, members who elect the revised benefit package provided under paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of Section 16-133.6 of this Code shall contribute an amount equal to the greater of the actuarially determined long term normal cost of the revised benefit package as calculated in fiscal year 2014 or 12%, minus contributions by the State of Illinois in fiscal year 2014 under subsection (b) of Section 16-158.2, provided that no member's contribution shall be less than 6% of salary. The System shall certify the actuarially determined long term normal cost of such revised benefit package and the amount of the required member contribution. For purposes of this paragraph (2), long term normal cost shall be defined as the normal cost of the revised benefit package assuming that all employees are covered under the revised benefit package. Contributions under this paragraph (2) shall be based on pensionable salary.

(3) In fiscal year 2014 and in each fiscal year thereafter, members who elect the self-managed plan provided under Section 16-133.8 of this Code shall contribute a minimum of 6% of salary. Members who elect the self-managed plan provided under Section 16-133.8 of this Code may elect to increase their member contribution in accordance with rules prescribed by the Board.
(Source: P.A. 93-320, eff. 7-23-03; 94-4, eff. 6-1-05.)
(40 ILCS 5/16-152.2 new)

Sec. 16-152.2. Increases in member contributions. If the member contribution required under Section 16-152 increases for any member pursuant to this amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly, the additional member contribution in excess of the prior member contribution for such member shall be deducted from the member's salary unless the member's employer agrees pursuant to Section 414(h) of the Internal Revenue Code to pick up and pay part or all of such increased contribution in addition to the member's salary.

Amendment to SB 512: Self-Managed Plan

Amendment SB512 (Nov. 7, 2011) pages 261-65
(40 ILCS 5/16-133.8 new)
Sec. 16-133.8. Self-managed plan:

(a) Purpose. The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois shall establish and administer a self-managed plan, which shall offer members the opportunity to accumulate assets for retirement through a combination of member and employer contributions that may be invested in mutual funds, collective investment funds, or other investment products and used to purchase annuity contracts, either fixed or variable or a combination thereof. The plan must be qualified under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

The plan shall not include the retirement annuities, survivors' benefits, death benefits, or refunds provided under this Article.

(b) The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois shall be the plan sponsor for the self-managed plan and shall prepare a plan document and prescribe such rules and procedures as are considered necessary or desirable for the administration of the self-managed plan. Consistent with its fiduciary duty to the participants and beneficiaries of the self-managed plan, the Board of Trustees of the System may delegate aspects of plan administration as it sees fit to companies authorized to do business in this State.

(c) Selection of service providers and funding vehicles. The System may solicit proposals to provide administrative services and funding vehicles for the self-managed plan from insurance and annuity companies and mutual fund companies, banks, trust companies, or other financial institutions authorized to do business in this State. The System shall periodically review each approved company. A company may continue to provide administrative services and funding vehicles for the self-managed plan only so long as it continues to be an approved company under contract with the Board.

(d) Member direction. Members who are participating in the program must be allowed to direct the transfer of their account balances among the various investment options offered, subject to applicable contractual provisions. The member shall not be deemed a fiduciary by reason of providing such investment direction. A person who is a fiduciary shall not be liable for any loss resulting from such investment direction and shall not be deemed to have breached any fiduciary duty by acting in accordance with that direction.

Neither the System nor the member's employer guarantees any of the investments in the member's account balances.

(e) Participation. A member eligible to participate in the self-managed plan must make a written election under Section 16-133.6 and the procedures established by the System. A member who has elected to participate in the self-managed plan under Section 16-133.6 must continue participation while employed as a teacher. Participation in the self-managed plan under this Section shall constitute membership in the Teachers' Retirement System. A member under this Section shall be entitled to the benefits of Article 20 of this Code.

(f) Contributions. The self-managed plan shall be funded by contributions pursuant to salary reduction agreements for members participating in the self-managed plan and employer contributions as provided in this Section.

The member contribution shall be made as an "employer pick up" under Section 414(h) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or any successor Section thereof. In no event shall a member have an option of receiving these amounts in cash, and payment of the member contribution shall be a condition of employment. The member contribution shall be deducted from the member's salary in the amount specified by paragraph 3 of subsection (f) of Section 16-152, unless the employer agrees to pick up and pay the member contribution in addition to the member's salary, pursuant to Section 16-152.1.

The program shall provide for employer contributions to be credited to each self-managed plan participant at a rate of 6% of the member's salary. The amounts so credited shall be paid into the member's self-managed plan account in a manner to be prescribed by the System. An additional amount of employer contributions shall be used for the purpose of providing the disability benefits of the System to the member. Prior to the beginning of each plan year under the self-managed plan, the Board of Trustees shall determine, as a percentage of salary, the amount of employer contributions to be allocated during that plan year for providing disability benefits for members in the self-managed plan.

The State of Illinois shall make contributions by appropriations to the System of the employer contributions required for members who participate in the self-managed plan under this Section. The amount required and the payment schedule shall be certified by the Board of Trustees of the System and paid by the State in accordance with Section 16-158.2.

The System shall not be obligated to remit the required State contributions to any person or entity until it has received the required contributions from the State.

(g) Vesting; withdrawal; return to service. A member in the self-managed plan becomes vested in the employer contributions credited to his or her account in the self-managed plan on the earliest to occur of the following: (1) completion of 5 years of creditable service; (2) the death of the member while in active service, if the member has completed at least 1 ½ years of service; or (3) the member's election to retire and apply the reciprocal provisions of Article 20 of this Code.

(h) If a member who is vested in employer contributions terminates employment, the member shall be entitled to the account values attributable to employer and member contributions and any investment return thereon.

If a member who is not vested in employer contributions terminates employment, the member shall be entitled to the account values attributable to the member's contributions and any investment return thereon, and the employer contributions and any investment return thereon shall be forfeited. Any employer contributions which are forfeited shall be used as directed by the System for future allocations of employer contributions.

SB 512 & Money Purchase Option (Update)

Money Purchase Benefits or Purchase Benefit Options are a calculation based upon actuarial determiners as to the amount of money a retiree from TRS deserves after so many years of service. When an individual meets with a TRS advisor to calculate what annual annuity amount he or she will collect after “X” years of service, the TRS advisor will usually provide that figure based upon the number of years (times a calculation of 2.2 percent of his or her final average salary for each year of service and up to a maximum of 75 percent of the final average salary). The average of the highest four years’ service in the last ten years is used for the calculation.

However, if the employee began working before June of 2005, another calculation may be used based upon the person’s contributions plus interest and the employer’s contribution. Note that the retiree is given the higher of the two estimates.

According to David Urbanek, TRS Public Information Officer, “Your contributions will be accumulating in your account faster at a higher rate than under the old law. When the time comes to calculate, more people will have a higher pension. That is the biggest driver of the increased cost to the state” (Wetterich, Northwest Herald, November 6, 2011).

If there is an attempt to eliminate the money purchase option, Urbanek states that it will “create the same legal questions that [SB 512] has had since its inception. Senate Bill 512 wasn’t written with regard to other laws. SB 512 gives every member a choice of what contribution rate he or she is going to pay. That’s against IRS rules” (Wetterich).

SB 512 will have current teachers pay increasing contributions – as written now – moving from 9.4% to 13.77% and so on, to perhaps as high as 20% in the next 15 years. According to Dick Ingram, Executive Director of TRS, those individuals who qualify and decide to remain in the Tier One Pension Plan and absorb the increased rates may see returns at retirement nearly 50 – 75% beyond what they might have expected otherwise.

Note that while the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago pushes the General Assembly to “do something” radical to thwart the pension systems and the public unions, the Civic Committee has designed a “quick-fix” bill that could cost the state even more:

“The bill could cost the state an additional $62 billion through 2045; employee pension contributions might no longer be taken out of their paychecks before federal taxes are deducted, and teachers who opt for a defined-contribution plan may be forced into the federal Social Security system, which would [increase the] cost [for] cash-strapped school districts” (Wetterich).

Ask Your Legislators These Questions Regarding the So-Called Pension Reform Bill

When you became a legislator, did you swear to uphold both the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Illinois? Do you believe that the contents of SB 512 are in violation of contractual agreements as stated in Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution and Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution of the United States?

If you were willing to pass SB 512 last May, apparently without thoroughly examining the consequences of the bill, a bill that would “increase taxpayers’ costs of up to $34 billion over 15 years” and, by increasing the Tier-One member contributions lead to “increased money-purchase benefits and higher liabilities for the state to fund,” are you now willing to read, contemplate, debate and analyze the bill in its entirety before voting on it?

If you supported SB 512 as it was proposed last May, one of the many problems with the bill is that "it may have the unintended consequence of forcing Tier-Three members [who are in a defined-contribution savings plan] into social security because of a drafting error in minimum benefits.” Did you know this at the time you supported the bill? Do you understand the ramifications?

If you are still in favor of passing SB 512, note that “it is estimated that Tier-Three benefits will be 30 percent less than Tier-One benefits if the final average salary and service are equal.” If you were a teacher in Illinois, would you choose a Tier-Three benefit plan? Why or why not?

Do you know that members in the current Tier-Two benefit plan (signed into law in April 2010) are paying down the unfunded liability that the state owes and that SB 512 will simply shift a substantial funding burden to teachers without requiring a mandated state funding of the pension system? Do you know that the Tier-Two benefit plan will also be in violation of the Social Security Safe Harbor provision?

Most state contributions, “two-thirds” under current law, are for past underfunding. Do you believe that any form of pension reform should guarantee funding from the state? Why or why not?

If you are in favor of passing SB 512, given Market volatility these past few months, would you be skeptical with only a Tier-Three, defined-contribution savings plan as your only source of income for your retirement?

Do you believe it is sound public policy to follow the leadership of corporate America today, particularly in the financial sector?

Do you realize that migration into a Tier-Three defined-contribution savings plan “will accelerate the state’s obligation to pay down the unfunded liability?”

To move teachers into a 401(k) option will reduce the amount of money available for TRS investments and jeopardize retirement security for teachers. If teachers receive social security, “every school district would have to contribute 6.2 percent per teacher.” Do you believe that all Illinois school districts can afford “an estimated increased cost of approximately $40 million in the first year and more than $2.4 billion over a decade?”

Do you know that the administrative costs of a defined-contribution savings plan are more costly than a defined-benefit pension plan? Are you aware of West Virginia’s shift into a defined-contribution plan in 1991 and the subsequent consequences that state had to address in 2006?

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago wrote SB 512; forty percent of its membership is in financial services. Will some of these members profit from the money transferred into the Tier-Three plan when teachers move from a defined-benefit pension plan to a defined-contribution savings plan?

Do you believe that a defined-contribution savings plan will help retain highly-qualified teachers in Illinois the way a defined-benefit pension plan does?

During the past fiscal year, “TRS paid out $3.9 billion in benefits but collected $6.8 billion in revenue.” Why are you and other state legislators so concerned about the unfunded liability of TRS that will, of course, never come fully due at any time in the future?

Though the state has made some of its required contribution to the pension systems most recently, why do some state legislators not want to address the state’s antiquated revenue system (the most important problem) but rather shift the burden of payment for pensions to local school districts outside of Chicago and, thus, increase property taxes for the citizens of Illinois?

Does it matter to you that retired teachers and their defined-benefit pension create “more than $4 billion in economic activity, including more than 30,000 full-time jobs worth $2.3 billion in wages for non-teachers?” Have you considered the effects that SB 512 would have on the state’s economy as a result of the inevitable destruction of the Tier-One defined-benefit pension plan?

Do you believe that teacher pensions are too generous? The average pension is slightly more than $46,000. (Remember, teachers do not pay into social security and receive little to nothing because of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset Act). The Teachers' Retirement System is the “only source of income for approximately 80 percent of teachers in retirement.”

Do you believe that a defined-benefit pension plan helps recruit the very best teachers and retain them, thus increasing the overall quality of public education for students in Illinois? Explain.

Most everyone knows that the state has not fully funded the pension systems throughout the decades. Do you and other legislators, (and the general populace) realize that all the people of Illinois have benefited from the programs and services that were funded with the money that was supposed to go into the public pension funds? Is this fair?

Most of us realize that the state has a cash-flow problem, and that it isn’t the fault of pension benefits but due to an economy that was almost completely destroyed by corrupt individuals in the private sector, particularly in the financial sector. Nearly 75 percent of people polled in Illinois believe that a regressive flat-tax rate, where millionaires and billionaires pay the same percentage of income, needs to change into a progressive tax rate. Consider that the wealthy pay even less than the average citizen because of tax breaks. How do you plan to address such a gross injustice?

If you were a public employee in Illinois, what would you honestly say about SB 512? What do you think about Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Civic Federation, the Illinois Policy Institute, and the Chicago Tribune diatribes? 

-Glen Brown

Dia de los Muertos

Chalma, Mexico – At least 41 worshippers
were suffocated or crushed to death
when a tightly-packed crowd began pushing
and shoving at a church famed for a religious icon
believed to have miraculous powers.
Thirteen of the victims were children.
--from a news story

They came from Guadalupe and Guasave
and from villages in the south
with prayer on their tongues

and dead Jesus around their necks,
across nameless plains and mountains
in borrowed automobiles full of parcels
of hope and faith, their lives pawned
for one more pilgrimage.

Little children in their Sunday suits
and starched, white cotton dresses;
young, barefooted women
in embroidered bodices and lacy headdresses;
their mustachioed men in huaraches and doeskin;
and the old: tortilla-breasted and stern-faced
in dark shawls, fingering beads, pressed together.

Like a pile of sapodilla seeds,
they gathered at the sanctuary
with garlands of marigolds and chrysanthemum,
hoping for a cure.

There was a loud perfume of bougainvillea
rising among the festoons,
the Virgin enticing them to come closer,
and then an avalanche of bodies –
the terrible stomping
and crushing of skulls and bones –
two-and-a-half tons of trust
beneath the shrine, one afternoon
under the hemorrhaging, Mexican sun,
the red sky burning in their eyes.


“Dia de los Muertos” was originally published in Willow Review, 1993.

“Dia de los Muertos” was nominated by Willow Review for the 1994 Pushcart Prize.

Dia de los Muertos

Chalma, México - Al menos 41 fieles
fueron asfixiados o aplastados
cuando una multitud apretada comenzó a empujar
y empujar en una iglesia famosa por un icono religioso
cree que tiene poderes milagrosos.
Trece de las víctimas eran niños.
- a partir de una noticia

Venían de Guadalupe y Guasave
y de los pueblos del sur
con la oración en la lengua,
a través de llanuras y montañas sin nombre
en los automóviles prestados llenos de paquetes
de la esperanza y de la fe, su vida empeñado
en una peregrinación más.

Los niños pequeños en sus trajes de domingo

y almidonado , los vestidos blancos de algodón,
jóvenes, mujeres descalzas
en corpiños bordadosy tocados de encaje,
sus hombres bigotudos en huaraches y piel de ante,
y el viejo: tortilla de pecho y rostro severo
en chales negros, granos digitación, presionadas juntas. 


Al igual que un montón de zapote semillas,
se reunieron en el santuario
con guirnaldas de caléndulas y crisantemos,
con la esperanza de una cura.

Hubo un perfume fuerte de buganvillas

creciente entre los festones,
la Virgen tentarlos a acercarse,
y entonces una avalancha de cuerpos –
los pisotones terribles
y aplastamiento de cráneos y huesos,
de dos toneladas y-uno-mitad
de confianza por debajo de la capilla,
una tarde bajo la hemorragia, mexicano sol,
el cielo rojo ardía en sus ojos.

You Are Being Trashed, Tricked or Mistreated by 21st Century Robber Barons: Happy Halloween Every Day of the Year!

Do you have a checking and a (practically-non-interest-bearing) money market account at Chase, Harris, Bank of America or LaSalle National Bank? Is your bank from the Wintrust Financial group: the Community Bank of Western Springs, Naperville Bank & Trust, Wheaton Bank & Trust Company, Glen Ellyn Bank & Trust, Community Bank of Downers Grove, Hinsdale Bank, Barrington Bank & Trust Company (there are many others)? Do you have a credit card from Bank of America, Discover or Citigroup? Is your auto-and-home insurance company Allstate? Do you have a Motorola cellular phone? Is your phone service provider AT &T? Do you attend White Sox and Bulls’ games? Do you subscribe to the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times? Do you have your prescriptions filled at Walgreens? Do you eat at McDonalds and buy your groceries at Jewel? Do you shop at Crate & Barrel and Wal-Mart? Do you buy your gasoline from BP? Have you ever slept in a Hyatt Hotel?

Are you giving your money unwittingly to these companies and banks? Consider this “partial” list of company CEOs who are also members of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago/Illinois Is Broke:

Glenn Tilton, Chairman of the mid-west region (J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); David W. Fox, Jr., Vice Chairman (J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); Alan G. McNally, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Harris Bank); Edward J. Wehmer, President and Chief Executive Officer (Wintrust Financial Corp.); Philip W. Hummer, Senior Vice President (Wintrust Wealth Management); Ellen Costell, CEO and US Countryhead (BMO Financial Corp. Harris Bank); Milton F. Darr, Jr., retired Chairman of the Board (LaSalle National Bank); Verne G. Istock, retired Chairman and President (Bank One Corporation/J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.); Timothy P. Maloney, Illinois President (Bank of America); Wilma J. Smelcer, retired Chair (Bank of America, Illinois); David W. Nelms, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Discover Financial Services); James T. Glerum, Jr., Chairman North America Regional Banking (Citigroup); Cary A. Kochman, Head of North America M&A/Co-Head, Chicago (Citigroup); Edward M. Liddy, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Allstate Insurance Corp.); Wayne E. Hedien, Chairman Emeritus (Allstate Insurance Corp.); Greg Q. Brown, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Motorola Solutions);

Paul V. La Schiazza, President, Illinois (AT&T); William K. Ketchum, retired President Central Region (AT&T); Bernard F. Sergesketter, retired Vice President, (AT&T); Mary N. Dillon, President and Chief Executive Officer (U.S. Cellular); Jerry M. Reinsdorf, Chairman (Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls); Tony W. Hunter, Chief Executive Officer (Tribune Publishing Co.); John W. Madigan, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Tribune Publishing Co.); Stanton R. Cook, retired Chairman (Tribune Publishing Co.); Scott C. Smith, retired President & Publisher (Tribune Publishing Co.); Cyrus F. Freidheim, Jr., retired President and Chief Executive Officer (Sun-Times Media Group); Gregory D. Wasson, President and Chief Executive Officer (Walgreens Co.); James A. Skinner, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive (McDonald’s Corp.); Fred L. Turner, Honorary Chairman (McDonald’s Corp.); Lawrence Howe, Senior Advisor – The Chicago Community Trust and former Chairman (Jewel Companies, Inc.); Donald S. Perkins, retired Chairman (Jewel Companies, Inc.); Gordon I. Segal, Co-Founder (Crate & Barrel); Jane J. Thompson, former President, Financial Services (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.); John R. Thomas, retired President, Midwest Fuels Value Chain (BP Products North America, Inc.); Thomas J. Pritzker, Chairman (Hyatt Hotels Corp.)…

About moving your money out of the Big Banks

for membership of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago: Click Here.

Meanwhile, has anything changed in two years about politics and money? Yes. It gets worse.

Here's an update from Roger Sanders (October 31, 2013):

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (Decatur, IL) is asking Illinois’ taxpayers for a $24 million tax break to relocate their corporate headquarters to Chicago.  The underlying “threat” is that if they don’t get their way, they are also considering other places to relocate their headquarters which houses about 100 top positions.  You might like to know that just the top seven Archer-Daniels-Midland executives’ compensation last year totaled over $30 million.  This does not include any deferred compensation for their pensions...

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. executives’ compensation 2012:

$31,655,494 annual compensation for the top seven executives:

P.A. Woertz, Chairman, CEO and President: $8, 955,977
J.D. Rice, Vice Chairman: $5,370,070
J.R. Luciano, Executive Vice President and CEO: $4,580,808
D.J. Smith, Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel: $4,349,581
S.R. Mills, Senior Executive Vice President, Performance and Growth: $3,873,383
R.G. Young, Senior Vice President and CEO: $2,551,512
M.J. Jansen, Senior Vice President: $1,974,166 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

ADM is not the only Illinois corporation with highly-compensated CEO’s that warrant our attention. The following are some examples of Illinois’ CEO compensation and pension benefits:

Caterpillar Chief Executive 2012
Douglas R. Oberhelman
Cash pay of $6,958,076
Total compensation: $17,738,076 (20% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $16,943,243
Deferred compensation: $5,035,193 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Boeing Chief Executive 2012
W. James McNerney, Jr.
Cash pay of $13,590,355 
Total compensation: $21,117,344 (15% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $42,910,774
Deferred compensation: $2,962,452 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Abbott Laboratories Chief Executive 2012
Miles D. White
Cash pay of $6,958,076
Total compensation: $18,955,889 (2% increase over 2011)
Lump sum pension: $36,662,770 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Crown Holdings Chief Executive 2012
John W. Conway
Cash pay $5,157,084
Total compensation: $12,027,126 (8% decrease from 2011)
Lump sum pension: $33,422,643 (Source: Annual SEC Proxy)

Cumulative lump sum pensions due these four CEOs to date (Caterpillar, Boeing, Abbott, and Crown) is $129,939,430.

As a point of reference, if the average retired teacher pension is approximately $50,000 and that retired teacher drew his or her pension for 30 years, the total lifetime pension payment would be $1.5 million. Compare that to the average $32.4 million pension set aside for the above CEOs.  On average, these four individuals’ lump sum pension accrued (to date) represents the lifetime pension of over 20 retired teachers for each CEO… You can draw your own conclusions as to which persons make the greatest contribution to our state, corporate CEOs or teachers in classrooms... 

Remember, two-thirds of Illinois’ corporations pay no corporate income taxes according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Have you talked to your legislators today? The Veto session continues next week?

We Must Prepare for a Constitutional Revision

It is imperative that all of us, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and other major stakeholders are prepared for a possible constitutional revision, perhaps in the spring or veto session in 2012. The Constitution of the State of Illinois may be changed by calling a constitutional convention for revision and then placed on a separate ballot at the next general election, by amendment proposed by a three-fifths vote in each house and then placed on a separate ballot at the next general election, or by an interpretation of the courts.

It is conceivable that a legislator who is not running for re-election and who is under the inauspicious and officious influence of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and other legislators will write and propose an amendment to the Illinois constitution before exiting the General Assembly, thereby challenging the "Pension Clause" once again.

ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 1. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
(a) Whenever three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly so direct, the question of whether a Constitutional Convention should be called shall be submitted to the electors at the general election next occurring at least six months after such legislative direction.
(b) If the question of whether a Convention should be called is not submitted during any twenty-year period, the Secretary of State shall submit such question at the general election in the twentieth year following the last submission.
(c) The vote on whether to call a Convention shall be on a separate ballot. A Convention shall be called if approved by three-fifths of those voting on the question or a majority of those voting in the election.
(d) The General Assembly, at the session following approval by the electors, by law shall provide for the Convention and for the election of two delegates from each Legislative District; designate the time and place of the Convention's first meeting which shall be within three months after the election of delegates; fix and provide for the pay of delegates and officers; and provide for expenses necessarily incurred by the Convention.
(e) To be eligible to be a delegate a person must meet the same eligibility requirements as a member of the General Assembly. Vacancies shall be filled as provided by law.
(f) The Convention shall prepare such revision of or amendments to the Constitution as it deems necessary. Any proposed revision or amendments approved by a majority of the delegates elected shall be submitted to the electors in such manner as the Convention determines at an election designated or called by the Convention occurring not less than two nor more than six months after the Convention's adjournment. Any revision or amendments proposed by the Convention shall be published with explanations, as the Convention provides, at least one month preceding the election.
(g) The vote on the proposed revision or amendments shall be on a separate ballot. Any proposed revision or amendments shall become effective, as the Convention provides, if approved by a majority of those voting on the question.

ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 2. AMENDMENTS BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
(a) Amendments to this Constitution may be initiated in either house of the General Assembly. Amendments shall be read in full on three different days in each house and reproduced before the vote is taken on final passage. Amendments approved by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house shall be submitted to the electors at the general election next occurring at least six months after such legislative approval, unless withdrawn by a vote of a majority of the members elected to each house.
(b) Amendments proposed by the General Assembly shall be published with explanations, as provided by law, at least one month preceding the vote thereon by the electors. The vote on the proposed amendment or amendments shall be on a separate ballot. A proposed amendment shall become effective as the amendment provides if approved by either three-fifths of those voting on the question or a majority of those voting in the election.
(c) The General Assembly shall not submit proposed amendments to more than three Articles of the Constitution at any one election. No amendment shall be proposed or submitted under this Section from the time a Convention is called until after the electors have voted on the revision or amendments, if any, proposed by such Convention.

(Note that there are four sections in Article XIV, Constitutional Revision).

Consider that Michael Madigan’s statement, “Let the courts decide,” might be deemed as the easier choice. This is a regularly-used method for issues regarding the interpretation of the language of an article in the constitution. Though all constitutional issues are heard in the appellate court, they are appealed and decided in the Supreme Court.

Article XIII, Section 5 (the Pension Clause) has been challenged several times since 1970. For a complete analysis, read Eric M. Madiar

Other Sources:
The Constitution of the State of Illinois
Understanding the Illinois Constitution
Pension Education: Legislative Amendment