Last month I gave the background about a law that gave county board members pension packages pretty much as good as state legislators. (Most will remember that I have one of those pensions, which I described here.)

Outrageous as it was described in this past week’s debate, the bill was non-controversial at the time. Roll calls are here.

It passed the House 105-10-1. The Senate tally was more lopsided–55 to 2.
Legislators from McHenry County, with the exception of yours truly, voted for the bill.

Greed on the part of county elected officials across the state was the main motivation for the bill, but there was as self-protection aspect as well

To its credit, the McHenry County Board of the 1990’s did not yield to entities of countywide officials. Other suburban counties did not, as the Tribune front page story of April 10, 2011, revealed.

What a difference 14 years makes.

Now a bill repealing the IMRF-drainer awaits Governor Pat Quinn’s signature.  (The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is the most well funded.  It covers local government’s employees with the exception of teachers.)

No one voted against that repeal.

Tom Kacich of Campaign’s News-Gazette wrote the story that stimulated this post and Dave Diersen’s GOPUSA Illinois pointed me to it.  You can subscribe to a daily email listing of political articles here.