Dive Brief:

• A state Supreme Court ruling in Illinois on teacher pensions has triggered a cascading series of problems for state lawmakers.

• The ruling overturned a law that had overhauled pensions for retired teachers, and Gov. Bruce Rauner now is pushing a constitutional amendment to cover some of the same issues.

• The state's teacher retirement system has $62 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Dive Insight:

State pensions in Illinois have been a mess for a while, but arguably nothing is worse than the huge gap between money and liabilities in the state teacher retirement system. With the court having tossed a law designed to reduce those liabilities, and lawmakers allowing part of a statewide tax increase to expire, the state needs to do something.

Rauner wants a constitutional amendment (which by default would pass state Supreme Court muster). Rauner's office says the state will owe $7.6 billion to the pension system in the next fiscal year -- which is about 25% of the state's entire operating budget.