- A crisis exposes weaknesses.
Here in Illinois, the crisis has served as a dress rehearsal for the kind of havoc the state’s pension crisis could inflict on the Illinois economy and government retirees if nothing changes.
More than 1 in 10 Illinoisans – 1.1 million, or about 11.4% of the adult population – are members of an Illinois public pension system.
Those government retirment systems are sitting on mountains of debt.
There's $144 billion in debt just in the five statewide systems, by the state’s conservative estimate, or $261 billion by a more realistic, independent estimate.
They average only 40% of the funds needed to pay out retiree benefits long-term.
...Illinois politicians have enhanced benefits without funding them and pushed off the financial reckoning for decades.
...Illinois politicians have enhanced benefits without funding them and pushed off the financial reckoning for decades.
As a result, pension costs, which took up just 4% of the state’s budget in the 1990s, have increased by more than 500% during the past 20 years, growing to consume more than 25% of budgets in recent years - rapidly approaching 30%....Read all.
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