State Universities Retirement System

AFSCME, collective bargaining, Quinn and the fine line

By Paul Kersey
12/18/2012
It is a basic axiom of government collective bargaining: If you have to bargain with a union about anything, you are liable to have to bargain with them about everything, and that includes things that you aren’t supposed to bargain about at all. This why collective bargaining with government employees is such a problem: Even...

Pension U: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis

05/04/2011
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...

Pension Systems Selling Assets to Cover Benefits

08/25/2010
by Kristina Rasmussen From Crain’s: Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, Springfield, plans to sell $3 billion in investments, or about 10% of its $33.1 billion in assets, in the current fiscal year to pay pension benefits, according to Dave Urbanek, public information officer. The system is the fifth Illinois statewide defined benefit plan to sell off investments this...