The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Chicago’s unfunded pension obligations have ballooned to $37.3 billion — a more than three-fold increase since 2003 — because of inadequate employer contributions, declining investment income and a shrinking base of active employees, a taxpayers’ watchdog group has concluded.
The Civic Federation’s latest report on the sorry state of the Chicago area’s 10 public employee pension funds does not factor in a Chicago pension reform bill signed by Gov. Pat Quinn that saved the Municipal Employees and Laborers pension funds.
There's more:
The report found the gap between current assets of the ten funds and pensions promised to retirees had risen to $37.3 billion.
The 10 funds had an average funding level of 45.5 percent in 2012, down from 74.5 percent a decade ago.
The firefighters pension fund is in the worst shape, with assets to cover just 24.4 percent of future liabilities. The CTA pension fund is in the best financial condition at 59 percent.
What could be worse?
Investment income didn’t help. And the future outlook is bleak, thanks to a “declining ratio” of active employees to beneficiaries.
In 2012, the 10 funds had 1.11 active employees for every retiree, down from a 1.55 ratio a decade ago. The police, laborers, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Forest Preserve and CTA funds all had more beneficiaries than active employees in 2012.
Counting statewide funds, the pension liability amounts to $19,579 for every Chicago resident.
This all assume no more recessions and bear markets in stocks!
