Gov. J.B. Pritzker had a chance to stop a bill putting taxpayers on the hook for $11.1 billion in inflated pension benefits for Chicago police and firefighters. He blew it. Taxpayers will be paying the price for decades.

Taxpayer contributions accounted for 56% of the money that flowed into Illinois’ pension funds in 2000. Two decades later, residents funded 84% of public employees’ retirements, yet pension debt is still growing.

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.

Massive increases in public safety pension contributions have failed to keep Oak Lawn’s credit from being downgraded to junk status. The Chicago suburb’s leaders are fighting cuts and tax increases, which are inevitable without pension reform in Springfield.

Illinois has nation’s worst pension debt. Maybe that’s because state lawmakers take a problem they aren’t sure exists, apply a solution they don’t know will work and never determine the cost.

The rapidly increasing cost of pensions is crowding out core government services.

A provision included in the bargaining agreement reached between Chicago and its teachers union will allow teachers to trade up to 244 unused sick days for pension credits – billable to all Illinois taxpayers.

Illinois’ contributions to its pension funds exceeded $10 billion in 2019 for the first time in state history – and it wasn’t nearly enough to keep the state’s pension debt from growing.