Illinois Public Pension Troubles

The Chicago Tribune has an important editorial on public pensions in Illinois:

According to its fiscal 2005 numbers, Cook County's pension fund had $2.2 billion in unfunded liabilities--up from a more manageable $85 million in 1996. Over that same time, the pension fund went from being 97.6 percent funded to 75.8 percent funded.

And the shortfall could well grow. Taxpayer contributions of $218 million in fiscal 2005 were barely half of the $428 million needed to cover the system's costs for that year and to begin repaying the pension liability over the next 30 years. By the Civic Federation's reckoning, the county system's liabilities will continue to grow--and, like credit card debt, they'll become even more expensive as the shortfall continues.

So, county taxpayers, you can't afford the Bobbie Steele you're stuck with--and you can't afford all the future Bobbie Steeles who come to work every day and pile up more pension points.

And Cook County government is but one example of Illinois public pensions run rampant:

- Earlier this month the Tribune reported that Illinois officials must grapple with a problem 30 years in the making: keeping retirement promises to more than 660,000 active and retired teachers and state workers. The article said years of scrimping on pension contributions, coupled with benefit increases, have turned the state into a poster child for a growing national problem. Illinois, with an estimated $45.8 billion pension shortfall, has among the worst funding records in the country.

- The fallout from that state pension debacle should matter to every citizen who cares about education or health care or other crying needs. State Comptroller Dan Hynes warned in September that Illinois pension and debt obligations, combined with Medicaid spending, will absorb virtually all likely revenue growth in future years. Those obligations are so onerous, Hynes said, that they threaten to constrain spending for other programs and severely limit Illinois' ability to weather an economic downturn.

What better proof that politicians have no long term interest in future problems because they will not be around to deal with them.