The Illinois Public Pension Amendment was a proposed amendment to the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

state constitution. On November 6, 2012, Illinois voters rejected it in a statewide

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

. A

legislatively referred constitutional amendment A legislative referral (or legislative referendum) is a referendum in which a legislature puts proposed legislation up for popular vote. This may either be voluntarily or, as is the case in many countries for a constitutional amendment, as a ma ...

, if approved, it would have amended the Constitution of Illinois. The measure would have made it so that a three-fifths approval would be required by the General Assembly, city councils, and school districts that wish to increase the pension benefits of their employees.

Passage in the state legislature

In the legislature, the bill that referred the amendment to voters was entitled "HJRCA 49 (2012)" and was sponsored by

Michael Madigan Michael Joseph Madigan (born April 19, 1942) is an American politician and convicted felon who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the longes ...

. It was required that, in order to qualify for the ballot, the measure be approved by 60% approval of both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. On April 18, 2012, it passed the House unanimously, 113–0. On May 3, 2012, the bill passed the Senate, 51–2.

Referendum

The amendment was referred to the voters in a referendum during the general election of

2012 Illinois elections Elections were held in Illinois on November 6, 2012. Primaries were held March 20. Election information Turnout Primary election For the primary election, turnout was 23.20%, with 1,694,317 votes cast. Turnout by county General electio ...

on November 6, 2012.

Ballot language

The ballot text read,

Endorsements

Results

In order to be approved, the measure required either 60% support among those specifically voting on the amendment or 50% support among all ballots cast in the elections. The measure failed to achieve either.

References

{{Elections in Illinois footer 2012 Illinois elections Public Pension Amendment 2012 ballot measures in the United States Public pension funds in the United States U.S. state constitutional amendments