Public worker compensation is a major factor in the debate over pension reform. Teacher’s salaries are particularly important because the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, is a major driver of the pension crisis. The total unfunded liability for TRS is $53.5 billion, more than half of the state’s total shortfall. TRS maintains more than 130,000 active...
By John Klingner
06/14/2013
Teacher contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, have gone up by 100 percent since 1998. But taxpayer contributions to teacher retirements have gone up by 400 percent since then. In 2012 alone, Illinois taxpayers contributed $1.6 billion more to TRS than teachers did. And the disparity between taxpayers and employee contributions is projected...
By Benjamin VanMetre
05/30/2013
A “cost shift” pension plan was introduced today, Senate Bill 1687 Amendment #2, for the State Universities Retirement System, or SURS. Here are the ins and outs of the plan: What the cost shift does: A significant driver of Illinois’ $97 billion pension crisis is the fact that the state makes pension contributions to SURS...
By Benjamin VanMetre
05/17/2013
The problem Illinois has the worst-funded pension systems in the nation. The structure of Illinois’ current defined benefit system coupled with the political unwillingness to reform has left the state’s pension systems in danger of running completely dry. Even the head of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, Dick Ingram, said the fund may...
By Benjamin VanMetre
05/02/2013
Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan’s pension proposal (House Amendment #1 to Senate Bill 1) perpetuates Illinois’ crisis. The plan locks in the unmanageable defined benefit plan, guarantees the crowd out of core government services and continues the irresponsible pension payment ramp. Madigan’s plan keeps politicians in control of state employee pensions. By failing to get rid of...
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...
TAGS: Medicaid, pensions
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.
By Jonathan Ingram
01/31/2013
Have you ever wondered what
investments politicians have made
using teachers retirement savings?
If you havent, you should be
interested.
By Brian Costin
12/31/2012
Illinois Policy Institute Executive Vice President, Kristina Rasmussen, appeared on ABC 20 to discuss the Auditor General’s report, which found that Illinois’ unfunded pension liability grew nearly $12 billion in fiscal year 2012. The unfunded liability in the state’s retirement systems has ballooned by nearly $12 billion in the last budget year. That’s according to...
TAGS: audit
