Property tax rates nearly double since 2007 as residents leave Harvey, Illinois

By Vincent Caruso

02/11/2019

Declining home values and a shrinking tax base have created a bigger property tax burden for Harvey, Illinois, homeowners. For their higher taxes, residents get corruption, debt and fewer services.

TAGS: harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, property taxes, taxes

Term limits popular with local voters, but Illinois state lawmakers try to blunt reforms

By Vincent Caruso

01/02/2019

Since 2014 alone, voters in 11 suburban Cook County communities approved term limits on elected leaders. A bill in the Illinois General Assembly seeks to curb those reforms.

TAGS: Chris Welch, harvey, Sam McCann, term limits

Crowding out: Chicago pension fund demands intercept of state grant money

By Adam Schuster

09/18/2018

The Chicago firefighters pension fund has filed claims with the Illinois comptroller for $3.3 million in shorted pension contributions, an action that could worsen city finances and service delivery.

TAGS: 401(k), Chicago, harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions

Moody’s: Illinois pension debt-to-revenue ratio hits all-time high for any state

By Adam Schuster

08/31/2018

According to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service, Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities equaled 601 percent of state revenues in 2017, a U.S. record.

TAGS: bonds, credit rating, debt, employment, harvey, Moody's Investor Service, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, Peoria, taxes

Illinois’ Gordian knot: Pensions, insolvency and the ‘b word’

By Austin Berg

08/30/2018

If lawmakers continue to balk at building the tools necessary to reform pensions, bankruptcy will be the only way out for communities across the state.

TAGS: bankruptcy, harvey, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, Peoria

Settlement agreement in Harvey foreshadows pension crisis in Illinois

By Adam Schuster, Joe Tabor

07/30/2018

An agreement to end a dispute between the city of Harvey and two public safety pension funds provides a glimpse at the impending fiscal crises stemming from government pensions across the state.

TAGS: harvey, municipal pensions, pensions, property taxes, taxes

Harvey revenue agreement highlights need for pension reform – or municipal bankruptcy

By Joe Tabor

06/08/2018

Illinois’ pension laws are forcing the city of Harvey to pay its creditors through short-term negotiated agreements just to meet payroll.

TAGS: bankruptcy, corruption, harvey, municipal pensions, pensions

Rhode Island city offers dire warning to Illinois municipalities struggling with pension debt

By Joe Tabor

06/06/2018

Central Falls, Rhode Island, filed for bankruptcy largely because of pension debt. If Illinois municipalities can’t meet or lower their pension obligations, they too could face fiscal collapse.

TAGS: bankruptcy, harvey, municipal pensions, pensions, spending

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