Chicago's credit rating downgraded

Chicago’s top lawyer is defending the city’s pension plan - even as an investor service is downgrading the city’s bond rating. The City of Chicago owes billions in pension debt. The City’s top attorney Steve Patton argues proposed changes to Chicago’s troubled pensions will withstand a legal challenge. Even though the Supreme Court just ruled against changes to State of Illinois retirement funds. “We don’t think you even get to the question of whether some defense or exception applies because we don’t think that our law violates the constitution in the first instance.” In a statement, Moody’s says it downgraded Chicago’s debt rating, in part because the city will have to make drastic changes to its budget to pay its pension obligations.