Gov. Pritzker still looking at pension fix

[TexasTowelie]

For the last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been busy signing a number of high profile bills that came out of an unusually productive session of the Illinois General Assembly.

But as he was traveling the state earlier this week he was reminded that one of the state’s most intractable problems — public employee pensions — is still unresolved and actually getting worse.

At an appearance in Chicago, Pritzker was asked about a story in Crain’s Chicago Business that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot thought the state should assume Chicago’s pension liabilities which, like many public pension systems, are woefully short of the money needed to meet all of their obligations. The city’s pension systems are short $28 billion they’ll need to cover their obligations for Chicago teachers, police officers, firefighters and city employees.

Of course, the state has its well-documented shortfall for the five state-funded systems covering state workers, university employees, lawmakers, judges and downstate teachers. The latest deficit for those funds stands at about $134 billion.

Read more: https://www.sj-r.com/news/20190704/gov-pritzker-still-looking-at-pension-fix
(Springfield State Journal Register)

[beachbum bob]

1. no simple fix and years of the state not paying into the pension fund and actually taking

employee contributions to augment the general fund spending and leaving more IOUs...this is not isolated to just Illinois