Despite a 2021 law meant to improve the funding ratio of Chicago’s park pension, the amount of money the system has on hand to pay out benefits remains low.

The five pension systems run by the state of Illinois only have 46 cents on hand for every $1 of benefits they owe. Filling that $144 billion hole would require more money than the price of every NBA team combined.

The average retired career state employee in Illinois was paid $93,558 in pension benefits last year. That’s $24,538 more than the average Illinoisan working to pay for those retirees.

Lawmakers quietly added a fund intended to comply with federal rules about pensions for newer state workers. If it works, Illinois taxpayers will have avoided costly federal mandates and a push by public employee unions to expand obligations by $64.5 billion.

Illinois lawmakers could still pass expensive changes to newer state worker pensions using a “gut and replace” maneuver. The proposal would cost taxpayers over $76 billion by 2050.

Career state workers receiving a Tier 2 pension stand to retire with significantly higher payouts than Social Security would deliver.

Without careful evaluation of whether Illinois’ pensions for newer employees are running afoul of federal rules or what the penalties would be, spending $78 million from the state’s budget is premature and wasteful.

Pension experts projected state lawmakers’ plans to drastically expand benefits for newer employees would add $60 billion to the state’s pension liability. Illinois is already $143.7 billion in the pension hole.