During his State of the State address last Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn announced his support of Senate Bill 1, a bill that would allow state employees to opt out of healthcare benefits instead of accepting reductions in their pension increases.

Jonathan Lackland, the deputy director for advancement, external and government relations for the Illinois Board of Higher Education, said he thinks Senate Bill 1 will get the most traction of all the introduced pension bills.

“Healthcare has been the sticking point because a lot of employees, when they would leave state service, their healthcare was paid for,” he said. “The state had a great retirement plan; now it is at the point they cant handle the payments.”

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. John Cullerton, contains two parts.

The first part of the bill reduces automatic annual increases, limits the amount of salary contributing to a pension, and increases the percentage employees have to contribute.

The second part of the bill requires recipients to choose to either accept reductions in pension increases or decline certain healthcare benefits.

Derek Markley, Eastern’s chief of staff, said Senate Bill 1 was designed in a way that would defend it in the debate on the constitutionality of reducing pensions.

“(Senate) President Cullerton thinks constitutionality reform means people have a choice, and that is choosing between better pension and having state sponsored healthcare,” Markley said.

Blair Lord, the provost and the vice president for academic affairs, said there has been some confusion regarding whether the state constitution would allow for a reduction in benefits of those who have been contributing for years.

“People that say the constitutional protection is strong argument that not only can they not reduce a pension from somebody who has already retired and collecting, but they can’t reduce it on somebody whose paid into the system for 25 years and still working,” Lord said.

Markley said people are especially concerned about the decreases in benefits because of the windfall provisions, in which state employees receive pensions instead of social security.

“One point a lot of people made is that people who are contributing have been contributing; they didn’t skip out on payments,” he said.

Markley said although the governor supports Senate Bill 1, it would take a while before anything is passed because the House can still make revisions to the bill and send it back to the Senate.

Lackland said the pension plan would likely not be voted on until the end of the congressional session in May.

“Illinois is in a different situation; we can’t say we’ve hit bottom yet, which is scary,” Lackland said. “We can’t move up if we don’t hit bottom.”

Stephanie Markham can be  reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].