Emanuel: City to appeal pension ruling

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual was in Europe last week when a judge ruled the city's pension law was "unconstitutional," but on Tuesday he discounted the ruling and called for an appeal to the decision.

"Just because one judge ruled that it means the Supreme Court will rule that way," said Emanuel in his first public comments on the ruling.

Last week, several aldermen and public sector union leaders called an appeal hopeless. Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court called the state's pension reform law unconstitutional because it - just like the city's ordinance -- would diminish or impair benefits.

The mayor continues to insist the city's law is different because it was negotiated with labor groups and would preserve pension systems that would otherwise run out of money without reforms.

"We did it with our labor partners and took matters together in a collaborative fashion," Emanuel said.

The mayor would not discuss his Plan B should the city lose its appeal of the pension ruling. It is undetermined whether taxpayers would need to help make up the billions of dollars needed to pay pensions.

In response to being told that city homeowners want to know if they need to brace for a property tax increase later this year, he said: "People want certainly, but I believe in presenting a full budget with all parts in there."

The mayor must present a budget by Oct. 15 which means that taxpayers will know then if, and perhaps how much, their property tax bills will go up.

Earlier on Tuesday, Emanuel helped break ground for a new 1,200-room Marriott Hotel at McCormick Place. Marriott's CEO Arne Sorenson said Chicago's fiscal problems were not a concern:

"When you get a city that's growing, building jobs, there'll be hundreds of new permanent jobs that will be created in this market," Sorenson said. "That's a good thing and will make those problems easier to solve and not harder to solve."

Also on Tuesday, the mayor and U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell walked through Garfield Park in an effort to publicize a program encouraging young people to play outdoors.