Despite record high contributions from the state, the Teachers’ Retirement System has less than 50 cents on hand for every dollar owed.

Actuaries say Illinois needs to put in $17 billion a year to fix the plans, but the 2027 plan calls for far less.

Emergency services have been cut in Peoria because public pension costs are growing. Voters will be asked whether a property tax hike should fix the problem.

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...

Public pensions are already eating away Illinois government services, increasing by more than 500% during the past 20 years as spending on core services including child protection, state police and college money for poor students has dropped by nearly one-third since 2000. At the same time the clock is running out on the state’s public...