The state of Illinois, like a lot of governments (and companies), deliberately underfunded its pension system for many, many years. The politicians diverted the money that should have gone into the pension system for other purposes.[1]
So the way that the state chose to deal with owing about a hundred billion dollars to the pension system was to "reform" the pension system because of a fiscal emergency brought on by their own deliberate failure to do what they promised to do. The courts said "not so fast, bucko".
Gov. Bruce Ratfuck, who is a mighty champion of tax breaks for the well-off, now wants to change the state constitution. So he can continue the state policy of fucking over people who worked for it.
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[1] Presumably, to do things such as give tax breaks to the rich.
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There are no good, nor painless, solutions to Illinois' problems. The state is basically bankrupt. It's time to dissolve the state, sell its assets, and pay out whatever bondholders and pensioners it can.
This is where profligate spending gets any government. Also, any public officials that wittingly allowed Illinois to rocket down this path should be prosecuted for fraud and/or embezzlement. While Illinois was going down the drain, they were raising their own salaries.
There is no painless solution, but there is a good one: Raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations that were the instigators and beneficiaries of this fiscal corruption, until the pension funds are paid back. And then keep those taxes high until those rich people don't have enough money left to buy the government.
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