Illinois' unfunded pension liability rises to $111 billion

Reuters reports:

Illinois added another $6.4 billion to its already large unfunded pension liability in fiscal 2015, pushing the total to $111 billion, according to a state legislative report on Thursday.

The bad news on the pension front comes as a budget stalemate between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature continues nearly halfway through the fiscal year that began on July 1.

Analysts at the legislature's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said changes in some actuarial assumptions at two of the five Illinois public employee retirement systems, along with insufficient state contributions, were the main reasons for the higher unfunded liability when fiscal 2015 ended on June 30.

Illinois has the worst-funded pensions among the 50 states and its funded ratio fell to 41.9 percent at the end of fiscal 2015 from 42.9 percent in fiscal 2014, the report said. Those percentages are well below the 80 percent level that is considered healthy.

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