In a blow to the budget plans of both Governor Rauner and Mayor Emanuel, the Illinois Supreme Court has struck down the 2013 pension reform law. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that by changing cost-of-living payments and changing how pensions are calculated, the law violates the state constitution provision that protects pensions from being reduced. The court rejected the state's argument that the dire financial crisis constituted an emergency that justified the state's use of its police powers to make the changes. Governor Rauner was counting on more than a billion-dollars in savings from the law in his budget calculations and Mayor Emanuel was counting on savings from similar changes in some of the city's pension funds.
