Pension Changes

Are we about to see another mass exodus of old timers?

• Following years of calls for pension reform, changes that would raise the retirement age to 67 for government workers to collect full benefits and put new limits on annual pensions zoomed through the General Assembly tonight.

  The idea is to save billions of dollars in the coming decades for taxpayers who will have to dig deep to cover retirement costs for school teachers, lawmakers and public servants in state government, universities, cities, park districts and counties.

  But the reforms would not apply to anyone who’s currently in the retirement system, only new government hires and state officials elected in the future.

This would seem to open the door to a two-tiered pension system.

It would also seem to push the retirement issue for anyone who is already maxed out, but still working for whatever reasons. If your pension is suddenly pushed off until age sixty-seven, it might be a good time to bail before this becomes law.

UPDATE: We may have incorrectly assumed the phrase "currently in the retirement system" meant only those who were retired. Some of our readers are saying if you are paying into the system, you are "in" the system. We aren't too sure about that - the City has changed the rules on retirements in the past. If you're a 30-something with 10 years on, and they raise the maximum to 67, what does this do to your pension rate and benefits? It certainly isn't going to go over the 75% currently in place.