February 18, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

A columnist for Forbes magazine declared in 2012 that Illinois, among several states, is in a fiscal “death spiral” that results from high taxation combined with population and business flight. Other observers have picked up the term.
In March, the Illinois Supreme Court hears an appeal by the state attorney general and several business-oriented groups to a decision last year that struck down an act that would reduce the growth in pension payments to government retirees.
The ultimate state high court decision will affect the state’s fiscal well-being for decades to come.
In the 1920s, the state began to provide meager pensions for penurious spinster teachers and later for state employees.
Over the decades, pay for government workers and their pension benefits have grown rapidly. Today, compensation for star faculty at our public universities and for local school superintendents often soars well into six figures.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.