By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal has to pay into three pension funds: IMRF, Police, and Fire.
The funding for IMRF isn’t horrible, Police and Fire are. What does that say about who the Town management and Council respect and who they don’t?
I’m sure you remember property taxes being raised year after year after year to pay Police and Fire pensions. From this chart in the 5 year budget, that practice is NOT going to change. Why budget expenses when taxes can just be increased? If rising property values or new homes and businesses don’t provide enough money, your taxes will be raised to cover the difference: http://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/13257/2018-2023
The problem is: It won’t be enough!
The Illinois Department of Insurance numbers were charted for all cities in Illinois to show required contributions and the amount actually contributed in 2016. This comes on the heels of the State seizing tax money from Harvey Il to fund pensions.
Normal failed to pay enough for both Police and Fire: http://www.wirepoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Police-and-fire-contributions-by-city-2016-Wirepoints-4.25.18.pdf
Bloomington Police and Fire pensions were funded at 53% and 50%, and more than the required amount was contributed. Funding levels in the 50% range aren’t sustainable. The additional MILLIONS Bloomington has paid in isn’t making much of a difference.
See this story from 2013 on Bloomington pension Funding: https://blnnews.com/2013/01/24/bloomington-employees-pensions/
Before the amounts were massively increased to Police and Fire pensions, Police was 58% funded, Fire was 51% funded.
Funding is still going in the wrong direction.
See the actual numbers for Bloomington as of 4/30/17 here: http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/ProcessSearchResults.cfm?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Pension%20Funds%20/%20Retirement%20Benefits&Code=064/025/30&CFY=2017&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No
IMRF pension debt was $ 22,884,390 (86.9% funded -2016)
Police pension debt was $ 66,314,753 (52.2% funded)
Fire pension debt was $ 59,397,278 (48.7% funded)
Bloomington also has a Post Employment Benefits liability of $8,974,427.
See Normal’s numbers here: http://warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com/ProcessSearchResults.cfm?DisplayMode=GETAFR&AFRDesiredData=Pension%20Funds%20/%20Retirement%20Benefits&Code=064/095/31&CFY=2017&Menu=Yes&PrintIt=No
IMRF pension debt was $ 18,232,581 (80.6% funded -2016)
Police pension debt was $ 32,142,000 (51.8% funded)
Fire pension debt was $ 23,981,000 (55.5% funded)
Normal has a Post Employment Benefits liability of $ 20,288,947.
If your eyes glazed over from all the numbers,
all you need to know if moving out of Illinois is your best option. Government exists for government employees, not you.
If people who should receive pensions actually believe they will, they need to wake up. The dominoes are starting to fall.
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May the dominos fall quickly so all can be reset.
The future is Detroit, Michigan; Pritchard, Alabama; and, Central Falls, Rhode Island. This cannot and will not last.
This “mindless liberal” spending will HAVE to come to an end. as there will NOT be ANY money to pay for it. Everyone has their “eye” on State Farm getting rid of people, but just LOOK around folks, Bergners, Toys, R Us, Murrays shoes, Macy’s, etc have ALL gone off the radar as of late. Tari is going to “re-invent” the mall so that’s no problem, but currently there is MORE retail space in the U.S. sitting EMPTY then at ANY other time-90 MILLION square feet-that’s 1935 acres! . And of course the left will say Trump brought it on. but THIS train left the station 9 years ago!
Good points regarding retail. It’s ironic that the Chamber, Tari, and Koos Koos are selling us on retail and “Downtown/Uptown” as centers of local commerce. Our leadership is lost!
Just talked to our realtor last night. Housing prices are crashing everywhere. The realtor said even areas like Founders Grove which have always been in high demand are down a lot. We are talking 10-20 percent here. Our house was listed early March. We are down 8% from our initial list price and have not received a single offer. Our next drop happening soon will be a 14% drop from the original list price.
I’m sure WGLT and the Pantagraph will look into it. Haha! The local spinmeisters are spewing nonsense lie 3% unemployment and State Farm jobs relocating to BN (even though its net negative). A realtor friend told us another round of layoffs is coming from State Farm. Awesome!
Added jobs were in service/hospitality and government…what does that say?
$300,000 pension! For what? These people are not brain surgeons or rocket scientists! They are just your average paper pushers. Holy Cow are we screwed! it is not sustainable. When will the city be bankrupt? And this does not include the cops and other sacred first responders.