Illinois is in crisis. According to official government numbers, Illinois has an unfunded pension liability of $96 billion – the worst in the nation. This heavy debt burden, combined with the state’s culture of out-of-control, wasteful spending, has driven the state into an economic death spiral. Illinois cannot be economically prosperous until real pension reform...

The only way to end Illinois’ pension crisis is to empower government workers by transitioning benefits for all future work to a defined contribution system.

Illinois' five public pension systems are broke. The systems are expected to pay out more than $600 billion between now and 2045, but have just $62 billion in the bank.

Concern over underfunding of both public and corporate pension plans has Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his party and other conservatives making a pre-emptive strike against the idea of federal government bailouts.

The Institute's senior director of government affairs, Collin Hitt, was quoted in an Illinois Statehouse News article about a former University of Illinois President receiving a golden parachute funded by the students and taxpayers.

In just ten years, the Illinois General Assembly pushed the burden of billions in government spending onto Illinois’ future generations. Official estimates put Illinois’ unfunded pension liability at $85.6 billion. But that amount does not take into account the $25.8 billion in pension obligation bond (POB) payments still outstanding, which have a net present value...

Policy makers struggling to protect higher education appropriations may be surprised to learn this fact: The total cost of the State Universities Retirement System (SURS) in 2012 will exceed the amount of general funds appropriated to all other higher education agencies and institutions. Years of overly generous pensions and delayed funding by the Illinois legislature...

Download a pdf of this report and chart here. If Illinois continues on its current path, the amount of money that state government spends on the State Universities Retirement System, or SURS, will eclipse the amount of general funds given to public universities and community colleges. The graphic below demonstrates how the rising costs of...