Broken Chicago public safety pension math: Just $6 B in assets for $68 B in payouts – Wirepoints
The city’s public safety pension funds have an obligation to pay $68 billion in pension benefits to police and firemen over the next 30 years. But the funds have just $6 billion in assets today.
Dabrowski & Bachrach Op-Ed: JB Pritzker Presides Over an Illinois Pension Mess – Wall Street Journal
Increasing payouts to Chicago cops and firemen will trigger an avalanche of copycat union demands.
Chicago pension sweeteners: Threatening public safety retirement security, soaking future Chicagoans – Wirepoints
In case you missed it, the Illinois General Assembly recently passed a bill full of pension sweeteners for Chicago police and firefighters hired after 2010. It’s a horrible idea that will only worsen the retirement security of Chicago’s police and firefighters and burden future Chicagoans with even more overwhelming tax hikes.
Why Gov. Pritzker Should Veto Chicago Tier 2 Pension Sweeteners – Wirepoints
In the dark of night during the recent state budget negotiations, Illinois’ General Assembly passed legislation to sweeten the Tier 2 pensions of Chicago police and firemen. If Gov. Pritzker signs the bill, it will be another blow to police and firemens’ retirement security. For taxpayers, it will mean even higher property taxes.
Common sense prevails for once in the Illinois statehouse – Wirepoints
It’s rare for common sense to win out when talking about Illinois state budgets, but here’s the story of one lawmaker’s idea that came out on top. It’s the simplicity of the idea that makes it special. Not only has it helped Illinoisans avoid billions in unnecessary pension increases, it also preempts a potential issue with the IRS.
Illinois lawmakers want to kick taxpayers in the teeth with expensive pension sweetener bill – Wirepoints
More pension sweeteners for government workers. Worth billions. That’s what some Illinois lawmakers want to squeeze into the state budget negotiations this week just as their session comes to an end. Sweetening pensions – lower retirement age, bigger pensions and bigger colas – is, of course, the exact opposite of what lawmakers should be doing.
Video: Here come more pension sweeteners…(aka tax hikes) – Wirepoints
Wirepoints joined Americans for Prosperity and the Illinois Policy Institute for a roundtable discussion on the proposed tier 2 pension sweetener legislation.
More than $1 billion in market losses is a reminder of how close Chicago pensions are to the brink – Wirepoints
Chicago’s pension plans avoided a reckoning in 2020 after federal covid aid helped the city avoid a fiscal collapse. But reality is back and the financial market’s volatility is a reminder of just how delicate the situation is. The market’s drop this year alone has cost the city an estimated $1 billion-plus in mark-to-market losses, a big deal for a city that already has a $53 billion funding hole.
Do Illinois and Chicago really need to sweeten Tier 2 pension benefits? – Wirepoints in the Chicago Tribune
Ed Bachrach of the Center for Pension Integrity and Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski wrote a new Tribune OpEd covering the latest attempt by state lawmakers to sweeten the pension benefits of Tier 2 public employees. They warn that hiking pensions benefits – and hiding the costs using funding ramps – will lead to intergenerational inequity.
An Illinois school district, where just 7% of kids are proficient in math, rewards superintendent with $480K salary – Wirepoints
The Lansing Journal reports that Dolton School District Superintendent Kevin J. Nohelty is set to receive a salary of $480,000.
Hear out this insolvency expert on Illinois and Chicago financial crisis – Wirepoints
For anybody seriously interested in the financial plight of Illinois, Chicago and many of the state’s other municipalities, the two-part interview of Jamie Sprayregen by Jeff Berkowitz is a must-watch.
Lawmakers are trying to sweeten government pensions yet again. Find out what that will cost you. – Join Wirepoints for a Facebook Live event about Illinois’ pension crisis on March 13th
Illinois lawmakers are planning to sweeten the pension benefits of government workers yet again. Not only will this balloon the state’s already massive debts, but it will also hit taxpayers right in their wallets. Join Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau and Breakthrough Ideas’ Jeanne Ives for a special Facebook Live event all about Illinois’ pension crisis and how it impacts ordinary Illinoisans.
…And about that “balanced” budget in Illinois – Wirepoints Quickpoint
Illinois politicians are once again touting a “balanced” budget. One problem. Calling the budget “balanced” completely ignores the fact that Illinois is underpaying its pension funds by the billions – same as it has every year for a long time.
Illinois taxpayers deserve answers before state pension costs rise – Wirepoints in the Chicago Sun-Times
Wirepoints and Ed Bachrach of the Center for Pension Integrity make the case that it would be political malpractice for state lawmakers to sweeten Tier 2 pension benefits. There’s nothing from the IRS itself — nor from the state’s actuaries or any government employer — that shows any individual is out of compliance with IRS rules.
Illinois lawmakers shouldn’t burden taxpayers with Tier 2 pension “fixes” until they know what they’re doing – Wirepoints
Several proposals to increase the pension benefits of Tier 2 workers – government workers hired after 2010 – are being floated in Illinois. Considering so much is still unknown about the need for any changes, it would be political malpractice for lawmakers to pass any purported “fixes” to Tier 2.
Illinois pension debts hit $144 billion in 2024, make a mockery of politicians’ decades of ‘balanced budgets’ – Wirepoints
For more than two decades, continuous “balanced budget” claims have been accompanied by a meteoric rise in Illinois’ unfunded pension obligations. Debts have jumped to $144 billion today from just $16 billion in 2000, according to the latest report from COGFA.
Chicago’s black hole: Pension debts jump even though taxpayers pour billions into city funds – Wirepoints
It’s been an absolute mess for Chicago taxpayers and the retirement security of the city’s government workers. Both the city and CPS have poured a cumulative $20 billion taxpayer dollars into the city’s pension funds since 2015. You’d think all that new money would have made a dent in Chicago’s pension debts, but it didn’t. In fact, it’s been the opposite.
This one graphic explains why Illinois is such a financial mess – Wirepoints
Fitch Rating’s most recently calculated state-by-state pension debts show that Illinois has the biggest pension shortfall in the country. At $172 billion, Illinois is the nation’s extreme outlier. It’s impossible to overstate just how menacing those massive pension shortfalls are to the future of this state and to the future of everyday residents.
Chicago’s worst-in-nation pension crisis strikes again – Wirepoints
Wirepoints recently warned in a Chicago Sun-Times oped that Chicago’s pension mess was going to get worse. As Chicago’s latest annual financial report shows, that’s just what happened.
Illinois government’s $100K salary and pension club: 150,000 members and rising – Wirepoints
Over 140,000 Illinois government workers and retirees took in more than $100,000 in salaries or pensions in 2023, according to data collected by Wirepoints via FOIA. That’s more than a 50% jump since Open the Books counted 94,000 government members with $100K compensation back in 2018.
Look for Chicago’s pension mess to become worse. That’s a bad sign for taxpayers. – Wirepoints, Taxpayer Pension Alliance in the Chicago Sun-Times*
The Chicago Sun-Times printed an OpEd by Wirepoints, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Technology and Manufacturing Association and the Center for Pension Integrity – all members of the Taxpayer Pension Alliance – that warns Chicagoans are being burned by the proverbial “slow boil” that’s wiping out retirement security for city workers, burdening residents with increasingly punitive taxes and depressing opportunities for the city’s most vulnerable.
