The way the system is set up in Illinois is that even if you have had a job where you paid into Social Security for years once you receive a pension from the state you are only eligible for approximately 20% of what you would have normally received from SS. (windfall profits) I do not have enough quarters in SS to even qualify for that as most of my employment has been in Illinois.

The two parties could not reach an agreement prior to the deadline so there is supposed to be a special session on pension reform this summer. Ironically both parties are in agreement over cutting benefits for both current retirees and all other employees and they already passed a law now requiring retirees to pay part of their health care premiums. We still do not know how much that will be. They cannot agree on who should be responsible for making the government's contributions -- state government or local governments and universities. The Democrats are trying to shift the costs to the local level as the city of Chicago already is responsible for teachers in the Chicago school district. Republicans are against the shift and argue that the Democrats are not serious about pension reform because they know the Republicans and some downstate Democrats will not support the shift. They believe the shift will result in higher property taxes. Illinois politics My guess is that nothing will happen now prior to the November election.

They did pass legislation last year that cut pension benefits significantly for new employees. Due to the mess that the state is in (Illinois and California are frequently mentioned as being in the worst shape) we have been experiencing a brain drain at the university. It is hard to recruit new quality faculty, younger faculty are leaving and getting jobs elsewhere, and the number of people retiring in the past two years has been record breaking.