Half of retired Chicago pensioners make more than average working Illinoisans, but nearly 30,000 teachers won’t be eligible for more than a contribution refund.
Across Illinois, police pensions are taking an ever-greater share of property tax dollars, leaving fewer resources for public safety.
In Lake County and across Illinois, fire pensions are driving up property taxes and leaving fewer resources for safety.
A bill that would increase Tier 2 pension benefits was passed out of Illinois House Executive Committee on Oct 30.
Harvey became the second city in 35 years to ask the state to step in under Illinois’ Financially Distressed City Law. It won’t address the main issue: growing pension liabilities.
The dream of homeownership is pushed out of reach by low housing supply and soaring property taxes driven by pension costs.
Pension costs take a growing share of school funding, driving up property taxes and leaving less for teachers and students.
Pensions and debt dominate Chicago’s spending increases, crowding out core services. Without reform, rising obligations will drag the city into deeper financial trouble.
Despite a 2021 law meant to improve the funding ratio of Chicago’s park pension, the amount of money the system has on hand to pay out benefits remains low.
If Chicago’s pension systems become insolvent, the city will have to reduce benefits or make serious cuts to city services. The only way out is constitutional reform.
Illinois’ pension crisis won’t be solved without constitutional reform. Waiting for Tier 1 members to completely leave the system would take decades and cost taxpayers billions in unsustainable benefits.
Chicago’s pension systems carry over $53 billion in debt, leaving taxpayers with rising bills and no reform in sight.
The five pension systems run by the state of Illinois only have 46 cents on hand for every $1 of benefits they owe. Filling that $144 billion hole would require more money than the price of every NBA team combined.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law adding $11.1 billion in new liabilities to Chicago’s fire and police pensions, already the worst-funded in the nation. These “sweeteners” hurt retirement security more than they help.