Members of the Illinois Senate Pensions Committee heard from pension administrators and government unions about the need for more benefits from retirement systems that are already broken. The Illinois Policy Institute was there, too, to represent taxpayers’ interests.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s pensions are worth an estimated $3.8 million after only four years as a teacher and one term as mayor. It could go even higher, depending on his next job moves.

Chicago’s pension systems for city workers have $51 billion in debt, so much that they are in worse shape than 43 states. Fixing them requires Chicago’s mayor to push for a change in the Illinois Constitution.

Despite claims of Chicago’s improving financial condition, the $48 billion in pension debt for the city’s core retirement systems continues to loom over its fiscal future.

Mayoral candidate and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson is eligible to collect an estimated $1.1 million pension through the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund despite only teaching for four years. His future path could yield a public pension worth over $2.8 million.

Pension holidays, steep increases in teachers' salaries, and lopsided ratios of teacher contributions to pension payouts have caused the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund’s unfunded liabilities to shoot up to $9 billion in 2015.

CPS is broke. To preserve funding for the classroom and Chicago's children, and to keep CPS from going belly up, CPS officials must broker significant concessions from the union.

CPS leaders have brought the teachers’ pension fund to the brink of insolvency. Now they’re counting on taxpayers to clean up the mess.

Opponents of real pension reform often argue that government workers receive modest pensions. The Chicago Teacher’s Union, or CTU, is one such opponent. Under its FAQ page about teacher pensions, the union’s website states: “The average Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) retiree earns $42,000 per year. Of the 87,000 retired teachers in Illinois, almost 1...