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The 2015 Pension 40: Bruce Rauner

No. 1 Bruce Rauner, Governor / Illinois

ByTyler Davies

December 22, 2015

<The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

Bruce Rauner

伊利诺斯州州长/

Last year: 1

Bruce Rauner, 58, inherited more than just a $4 billion unbalanced budget and imploding credit ratings when, backed by Chicago business interests led by Citadel’s Kenneth Griffin, he became governor of Illinois in January. He also got the most underfunded state pension system in the U.S., with only 43.4 percent of benefits bankrolled, compared with 55 percent in the second-worst state, Connecticut. Illinois has been operating without a budget since July because of a stalemate between the Republican governor and the Democrat-controlled legislature. In an effort to shrink the state’s now-$6.9 billion debt by “a couple of billion” dollars a year, Rauner, former chairman of Chicago private equity firm GTCR, released a 500-page pension reform bill in July that rattled many cages, from the Chicago Teachers Union to Democratic state senators. Rauner laid out plans to effectively reduce benefits for police, firefighters and teachers, and remove state and local workers’ pensions from collective bargaining. Critics howled, arguing that the plan was unconstitutional, just like former Democratic governor Pat Quinn’s 2013 pension revamp, which the Illinois Supreme Court knocked down in May 2014, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (No. 9) plan, which a Cook County circuit court voided in July 2015. A legal challenge undoubtedly awaits. Meanwhile, the state can’t release the $560 million November pension payment because of what theChicago Tribunecalled a grotesque stalemate; the Illinois’ comptroller has warned that the debt could balloon to $8.5 billion by year-end if a deal isn’t reached. Rauner, a Harvard Business School graduate, was elected on a pro-business, antiunion platform. His campaign promised to cap the current pension system, shift to a defined contribution structure and check near-retirement wage hikes for government employees. Getting any of that done has proved to be difficult. And Rauner finds himself trapped in the no-win zone of a pension crisis.

The 2015 Pension 40