This editorial urges the Illinois legislature to immediately focus on pension reform and supports the Civic Federation’s position that the General Assembly should put aside gaming expansion until after the passage of comprehensive pension reform.
Federation Calls Gaming Bill a Major Distraction from Pension Reform The Civic Federation supports Governor Pat Quinn’s veto of Senate Bill 1849, which would authorize casino gambling in Chicago and significantly expand gambling in other parts of Illinois. Governor Quinn’s veto of Senate Bill 1849 awaits action by the Illinois General Assembly. In his veto message, the Governor emphasized deficiencies in the proposed gambling expansion’s regulatory oversight and ethical requirements. The…
In a report released today, the Civic Federation supports the $190.3 million proposed FY2013 Forest Preserve District of Cook County budget for its discipline in identifying non-tax revenue sources as an alternative to increasing the property tax levy. The proposed budget also maintains the District’s substantial reserves. The full 60-page report is available at civicfed.org. “President Preckwinkle and Superintendent Randall are responding appropriately to the District’s financial constraints…
(The full content of this article is available only to the publication’s subscribers.) This article covers the Civic Federation’s updated analysis of Illinois’ pension funding. By compiling recent actuarial reports for the State’s five retirement funds, the analysis finds the combined funded ratio for Illinois’ pension system has dropped to 39.0% based on the market value of assets (40.4% based on the actuarial or smoothed value of assets.)
The financial condition of the State of Illinois’ five retirement systems worsened in FY2012, with the systems’ total unfunded liability growing to $96.8 billion as of June 30, 2012 and the combined funded ratio declining to 39.0%. The FY2012 numbers compare with a total unfunded liability of $83.1 billion and combined funded ratio of 43.3% at the end of FY2011. The following table, based on recent actuarial reports for the retirement systems, shows their financial condition at the end of…
This article cites an IIFS blog post that the State’s total contribution to its five retirement systems will need to increase by nearly $1 billion in FY2014 to meet statutory funding requirements. The proposed contribution level is based on recent recommendations by the five systems. The bulk of the increase relates to the Teachers’ Retirement System.
As highlighted in the Civic Federation’s analysis of the proposed FY2013 City of Chicago budget and discussed in last week’s blog post, Chicago faces difficult choices due to the continued decline of its four pension funds. The Police and Fire pension funds have the lowest actuarial funded ratios at 35.6% and 28.3%. The funded ratio shows the percentage of pension liabilities covered by assets. The lower the percentage, the more difficulty a government may have in meeting future obligations.…
The State of Illinois needs to contribute a total of $6.8 billion to its five retirement systems in FY2014 to meet statutory funding requirements, according to recent recommendations by the five systems. The proposed total FY2014 contribution amount is $964.7 million, or 16.4%, more than actual FY2013 State contributions of $5.9 billion. The proposed total for FY2014 is also $636.8 million, or 10.3%, larger than the FY2014 contribution of $6.2 billion projected a year ago. The following table…
The Civic Federation supports the City of Chicago’s FY2013 proposed $6.5 billion budget which reduces the City’s reliance on one-time revenue sources while restructuring City government through better managing personnel expenditures. The proposal also holds the property tax level nearly flat and does not include any new tax or fee increases. Actions taken to close a $298 million budget gap…
This editorial discusses Moody’s Investor Service’s most recent downgrade CPS in the wake of a new labor contract for teachers and rising pension costs. The Civic Federation says CPS cannot afford to wait for leadership from the Illinois General Assembly and should immediately work to identify sustainable pension reforms.
