State law requires payments into the pension funds for teachers, university employees, state workers, lawmakers and judges regardless of whether there’s a budget. The state paid $7.6 billion into the five systems last fiscal year and is expected to pay $7.9 billion for the current fiscal year that ends June 30. Comment: Yet there’s barely a word about pensions in the budget package aside from the trivial, fake policy “consideration” gimmick. Pensions are the lion’s share of the budget crisis. Why isn’t a constitutional amendment deleting the pension protection clause part of the Grand Bargain?

Comment: $7 billion in School Improvement Grants; zero results. Pay attention, Illinois.

Author Jim Nowlan is a former Illinois legislator and aide to three unindicted governors.

The state is now spending more money on retirement costs than on university operations. A decade ago, retirement costs made up only 20 percent of the state’s total higher education spending. Today, that percentage has ballooned to 53 percent. As spending on retirements rose from 2006 to 2015, state spending on higher education operations fell by over $150 million.