That hammering sound you hear is another nail being driven into the coffin of pension reform for 2012.

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune editorial board last week that pension reform won’t happen until Jan. 1 at the earliest. There aren’t enough votes to do it before then, he said.

Cullerton, recall, was the one who maneuvered a limited pension reform bill through the Senate in late May. It affected only state employees and lawmakers. Downstate teachers, university workers and judges were not included. Cullerton argued that passing reforms that affected only a couple of the state’s retirement systems was better than doing nothing.