A Cook County judge has ruled judges who took office after 2011 aren't entitled to bigger pension payouts if they worked for the state of Illinois or other local governments before becoming judges, turning aside an attempt by two Illinois state court judges - one from Cook County and another from St. Clair County - to potentially take down a key Illinois state pension reform law.
Cook County Circuit Judge Alison C. Conlon delivered the ruling on Dec. 30, formally upholding the determination from the Illinois Judges Retirement System (JRS) that Cook County Judge Natasha Toller and retired St. Clair County Judge Patricia Kievlan should not qualify for higher pension benefits just because they held other jobs funded by Illinois taxpayers before they became judges.
"... Neither plaintiff here was a member of JRS when the (new law) became effective," wrote Conlon. "Plaintiffs do not cite any case law supporting their argument that as members of other pension systems before January 1, 2011, they had a right to the then-existing benefit formulas in JRS should they become future participants in JRS."
Kievlan and Toller filed suit together in March 2024, taking aim directly at a 14-year-old state law that many state officials and observers have credited, in part, with helping the state move toward sustaining its troubled public worker pension system.
Specifically, the lawsuit targeted Public Act 96-0889, known generally as the Tier 2 reform law.
When state lawmakers approved the law in 2010, they said they intended to reduce pension obligations owed by the state and taxpayers to future workers employed by governments whose workers are enrolled in pension systems controlled by the state.
Under the Illinois Supreme Court's interpretation of the Illinois state constitution's so-called pensions protection clause, lawmakers are generally forbidden from reducing any retirement benefits for current public employees, whether those benefits have already been earned or merely promised.
However, under the reform measure, lawmakers created a new "tier" of reduced pension earnings available to those hired by state and local governments after the new law took effect in 2011. Specifically, the law removed the ability of Tier 2 participants to reap massive returns on relatively smaller pension plan contributions, thanks to compound interest annually until death. That compound interest was replaced with smaller scheduled annual increases.
The law also capped benefits, while altering how future payments could be calculated.
The law has been credited with helping the state begin to better balance its financially-troubled pension system, a boast commonly made by Gov. JB Pritzker and others. Critics, however, have asserted the Tier 2 reforms have resulted in a system in which Tier 2 workers are now subsidizing the retirements of Tier 1 public employees, while the state's Tier 2 contributions to the newer workers' retirement accounts threaten to fall short of what those workers might receive from Social Security, if they worked in the private sector.
Illinois lawmakers this winter and spring are expected to consider measures to potentially roll back Tier 2 reforms on that basis.
However, at the same time, Toller and Kievlan sought to use their lawsuit to potentially overturn Tier 2 altogether.
Public pension systems in Illinois have interpreted the Tier 2 law to limit the retirement earnings of current public employees if they move from one kind of public employment to another.
Under traditional "Tier 1" pensions, public employees could use all of their years of public employment to calculate their final pension payout, no matter the number of different taxpayer-funded agencies for which they may have worked, under the state's so-called Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act,
Toller and Kievlan specifically targeted that practice in their lawsuit, saying it is unconstitutional as applied to current public workers who later become judges.
The lawsuit notes that Kievlan worked for "many years" as an instructor at a public community college in Belleville, and also served for years as a member of the St. Clair County Board. She was appointed as a judge in 2013, and retired in 2023.
According to the lawsuit, Toller was appointed to the Cook County judicial bench in 2023. Before that, she had worked for 17 years as a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney, including as a top assistant to Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. Toller then worked for more than a year for the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board.
Both judges said they were treated as Tier 1 pension participants in their previous public employment.
However, they said the Judges Retirement System decided their previous "service credit" earned under their previous government jobs shouldn't count toward their pensions as judges. Instead, the JRS determined they should be treated as Tier 2 pensioners for retirement earnings they may received through JRS.
In their complaint, Kievlan said the JRS board's determination would cost her $73,000 per year.
Toller didn't make such a calculation, as she is currently serving as a judge.
Both Kievlan and Toller allegedly told the JRS they believed the Tier 2 pension determinations amounted to violations of the state constitution's pensions protection clause, because it diminishes their potential retirement earnings and they were considered "Tier 1" employees who were employed by taxpayer-funded agencies before the reform law was passed.
They also asserted the application of the Tier 2 law by the JRS and other public pension organizations violate their rights to equal protection under the law, because it treats public employees differently, based on the public employment jobs they may hold.
The lawsuit carried the possibility of invalidating the Tier 2 law entirely, or result in a system in which Tier 1 public employees who become judges or who move to a different Illinois taxpayer-funded job can maintain their Tier pension calculations throughout, regardless of the Tier 2 reforms.
In her ruling, however, Conlon said Toller and Kievlan failed to show they were entitled by any legal right or prior court ruling to continue receiving Tier 1 benefits after they became judges.
Conlon noted the Reciprocal Act, in particular, includes no language obligating JRS or other public worker pension systems to use Tier 1 methods to calculate retirement benefits for public workers who become judges or change jobs.
"Such an approach, in this Court's view, would not be consistent with the Reciprocal Act's directive that proportional annuity benefits should be calculated based on the relevant formular in effect in each system at the time the participant withdraws from that system," Conlon wrote.
Conlon further said she did not believe lawmakers intended to essentially exempt everyone who was working for the state or Illinois local governments in 2010 from the new Tier 2 calculations, when and if those workers become a judge or take a different government job covered by a different pension system.
"... This Court cannot find a clearly expressed legislative intent that participants who joined JRS on or after January 1, 2011 from a reciprocal system should be designated as Tier 1 participants in JRS," Conlon wrote.
And Judge Conlon rejected Kievlan's and Toller's equal protection claims, saying she believed lawmakers were allowed to use Tier 2 amendments specifically to reduce pension obligations owed to people who become judges after 2011.
"Judges and legislators receive 'more favorable Tier 1 benefits rules than members of other systems,' including higher multipliers and higher caps on retirement annuities," Conlon wrote. "Judges and legislators also enjoy higher average salaries and retirement annuities than participants in other state-funded systems.
"... There is a rational basis for enacting these reforms to protect the health of JRS ... while still attracting quality candidates for public office."
Kievlan and Toller can choose to appeal Conlon's ruling. According to the online docket for the case as of Jan. 6, they have not yet filed a notice of appeal.
Kievlan and Toller have been represented in the case by attorneys Terrence J. Sheahan, Jill C. Anderson and Meghan E. Tepas, of the firm of Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP, of the Freeborn & Peters Practice Group, of Chicago.