How Illinois Became The Worst in the Nation For Pension Debt

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Illinois' pension system was in precarious enough shape in 1994 that Democrats and Republicans came together to solve a crisis threatening the state's financial future.

The agreement they forged was supposed to take politics out of pension funding by requiring a steady stream of payments over the next 50 years. The law was billed as an "extraordinary measure" that would finally force the Legislature to fulfill its "constitutional responsibility" to hundreds of thousands of state workers past, present and future.

You'll want to read this article because Illinois politicians want federal taxpayers to bail them out.