Residents didn't directly sign up for these debts. A series of corrupt Democrat politicians who used theses pensions to buy union votes are responsible. While I admit the thought of their personal assets being seized to pay off these obligations does make me smile, I also don't think that'd be legal.
Similarly, it's not the personal assets of the rest of the citizens of Illinois that would be at stake here. There may be an argument for the sale of public assets, owned by the State itself, to cover some part of this in a bankruptcy hearing but I'd imagine there is going to be significant legal challenges to that as well. The optics of literally selling our children's public inheritance to pay off these corrupt deals is not going to play well with the electorate.
The counterparty for these pensions is not the individual residents of the State. It's the State itself, and possibly a subordinate institution. Sinking funds for current employees of those institutions are fair game. Similarly, the rest of the country is not responsible for these debts either.
Defined benefit plans are at best a deferred time bomb and at worst a deferred time bomb with a short fuse.
> State employees in the past accepted lower salaries in exchange for this future benefit.
So? If they were that concerned about the future benefits they should have received a defined contribution plan that pours the money into an employee controlled sinking fund. Nothing stops the State from declaring bankruptcy and reneging on its end of this deal.
It may sound callous but if the alternative is raising taxes to the point that nobody is left in Illinois, is that really an alternative? Sometimes you have to amputate an arm to save the patient.
> Taking away that pension now would be theft from these people.
Agreeing to these outrageous pensions with no way to pay for them is theft from all current and future tax payers. This is a scamola run by politicians to buy votes from public sector unions and it needs to end.