SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers abruptly adjourned a lame-duck legislative session Tuesday without agreement on how to fix the nation’s most dire pension crisis, declining even to vote on the governor’s last-ditch effort to let an independent commission sort out the $96 billion mess.

The push to solve the crisis by Gov. Pat Quinn’s deadline of today, when a new Legislature is sworn in, crumbled swiftly during the day. Democratic sponsors of a reform bill failed to amass the votes necessary amid stiff union
resistance and legislative leadership unwilling to chance a roll-call vote.

Certain the measure lacked the required 60 votes in the House to require increased employee contributions and a reduction in post-retirement benefits, Quinn called an audible.