"The people of Illinois want the General Assembly to put comprehensive pension reform on my desk.
"They do not want legislative leaders to play a $17 million-a-day game with the future of our state, our children and our economy.
"There is something wrong in Illinois when the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate could join together to propose a pension holiday for Chicago, yet they could not send a comprehensive pension reform bill to my desk.
"I have made pension reform the top priority for the state of Illinois for more than a year. Since I convened a pension working group in January 2012, I have proposed comprehensive solution after solution, worked across the aisle, called a special session, set deadline after deadline and released study after study on the dire impact of inaction on education and our economy. I have met at length, countless times, with the leaders and legislators on this issue.
"I will not stop fighting until pension reform is the law of the land. But as I said in my budget address, I cannot act alone. If I could issue an Executive Order to resolve the pension crisis, I would. And I would have done it a long time ago.
"Today, Moody's issued another warning to legislators that Illinois' credit rating would soon be downgraded - again - if they did not act on pension reform. Downgrades hurt our economy, waste taxpayer money and shortchange the education of our children.
"Yet every time Illinois is downgraded - legislators leave Springfield without getting the job done.
"This is wrong. I will call the legislative leaders together in the coming week to forge a comprehensive pension reform agreement."
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