The provisions of Public Act 98-0622 will not go into effect until January 1, 2015, but the changes to Chicago Park District employee and retiree pension benefit levels have already reduced the fund’s unfunded liability by $109.4 million or 18.5% and increased the funded ratio by five percentage points to 45.5%. http://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/chicago-park-district-pension-fund-shows-positive-impact-pension-reforms

Braidwood overwhelmingly rejected a proposed property tax increase to fund its pension hole. In Kankakee, “You can’t tax people enough to pay this bill,” said Mayor Nina Epstein. via Kankakee owes more in pensions than it can afford – The Daily Journal: Local.

Nearly one in four Metra conductors and assistant conductors pulled down at least $100,000 last year, and an even higher proportion of engineers — almost 40 percent — took home that amount. Comment: And pensions are in addition to that! via Metra’s $100,000 club includes conductors, engineers | Chicago Sun-Times.

The committee received testimony on three different proposals to hike the city’s base hourly wage from the current $8.25 to $10, $13 and $15. Committee members did not vote on any of the proposals. http://progressillinois.com/news/content/2014/11/11/chicago-council-committee-holds-packed-minimum-wage-hearing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: ProgressIllinois (Progress Illinois)

North Riverside says its contract with firefighters expired in April and it seeks to privatize its fire protection services, turning current firefighters into employees of a private company, PSI, which has provided paramedic services to the village for decades. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-dietrich/does-one-illinois-village_b_6141184.html