With a mere 39 cents on hand for every dollar needed to pay for future benefits, the state would need a three-year government shutdown just to break even.

The Peach State has been keen to modernize their public pension system.

At the rate pension costs are expected to increase, by 2029 the state will spend more on retirement costs than on aid to schools.

Michigan was a trailblazer when it comes to 401(k)-style reform plans for government workers. In 1997, Michigan froze the state employees’ defined-benefit pension plan and created a self-managed 401(k)-style retirement plan for new state workers. It was the first state in the nation to enact bold reforms like these. Michigan state employees who started working...

401(k)-style retirement plans are becoming the new normal in state and local pension reform efforts. Six states have passed 401(k)-style reforms since 2008 – with Oklahoma passing a 401(k)-style reform plan for new workers earlier this year. Memphis, Tennessee, is the most recent example of a city pushing to take politicians out of the retirement...

Illinois’ active legislators will each cost the state budget about $180,000 next year.

In June 2014, in response to attempts by the state to reform government-worker health-care costs, Illinois’ Supreme Court found these benefits to be protected by the state’s pension clause ­– even though retiree health-care benefits are nowhere to be found in the state pension code. As a result, many assume that if the state can’t...

Hardworking Illinois families and entrepreneurs are just four months away from tax relief. The state’s personal income tax rate is slated to drop to 3.75 percent from 5 percent in January 2015. But a number of lawmakers and special-interest groups don’t want to let that happen. Tax-hike advocates across the state argue that Illinois needs...

Given they depend on the nation’s worst-funded pension systems for their retirement security, Illinois’ government workers may want to take a look at how a group of Arizona firefighters are responding to pension-fund problems of their own. Arizona’s firefighters fear that out-of-control pension costs could bankrupt cities in Arizona, resulting in cuts to pensions like...