Illinois’ pension costs, debt are growing far faster than state predicted

By Bill Reveille

02/27/2020

The pension crisis is worse than the state admits, and the state’s official projections cannot be trusted.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, Illinois Constitution, JB Pritzker, pensions, progressive income tax

Illinois pensions 101: Paltry contributions yield million-dollar payouts

By Adam Schuster

01/17/2020

Across all five state retirement systems, typical career workers pay for about 5% of the cost of their pension benefits. They receive an average of $1.7 million to $3.6 million.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, firefighter pensions, GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, government employees, government services, government unions, government workers, IEA-NEA: Illinois Education Association, IFT: Illinois Federation of Teachers, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, Illinois, Illinois Constitution, Jim Edgar, JRS: Judges’ Retirement System, municipal government, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, police pensions, public sector, retirement age, Rod Blagojevich, SERS: State Employee Retirement System, Social Security, social services, Springfield, SURS: State Universities Retirement System, tax hikes, tax increase, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

CTBA pension plan: Unsound, unfair and unaffordable

By Adam Schuster

11/26/2018

A pension plan pushed by one Illinois think tank fails to reform the state’s broken pension system and risks repeating costly mistakes. Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker shouldn’t be fooled and should instead endorse meaningful, lasting reform.

TAGS: CTBA: Center for Budget and Tax Accountability, debt, Edgar Ramp, JB Pritzker, Jim Edgar, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions

Harvey pension crisis leads to mass layoffs

By Adam Schuster

04/11/2018

Police, firemen and other government workers will be laid off to cover pension costs.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, municipal pensions, pensions, property taxes

Damage from Edgar ramp obscured by dotcom boom

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner

10/25/2016

Former Gov. Jim Edgar’s pension compromise with House Speaker Mike Madigan in the 1990s set the state’s pension funds down an unsustainable road.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, Jim Edgar, pensions

The Edgar ramp – the ‘reform’ that unleashed Illinois’ pension crisis

By Ted Dabrowski

10/27/2015

The former governor’s landmark pension bill paved the way for two decades of go-along-to-get-along pension politics, turning Illinois' pension debt into the nation's largest retirement crisis.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, pensions

IL taxpayers overpaid for pensions by more than $16B under original Edgar ramp

By Benjamin VanMetre

05/13/2015

What happens when financial gimmicks win out over real pension reform?

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, pensions

Pension apocalypse? COVID-19 exposes long-running fragility of Illinois public pensions

Illinois’ pension crisis has been a growing problem for decades, and its negative effects on state residents are well documented.1 Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and related government shutdown orders threaten to bring that long-running crisis closer to its breaking point. The state’s five pension systems collectively held nearly $139 billion of debt at...

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Pension apocalypse? COVID-19 exposes long-running fragility of Illinois public pensions

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Joanne Troesch

Policy lessons from Illinois’ exodus of people and money

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students