By: Diane Benjamin
$270,944,173
Again this year Bloomington’s finances are on the Illinois Comptroller’s site BEFORE the City gets around to releasing the CAFR (financial statements).
The fiscal year ended 4/30/2020 – almost 6 months ago.
Why rush?
What do they show?
Bond Debt: 47,780,000
IMRF pension debt: 12,821,451
Police Pension Debt: 77,693,023
Fire Pension Debt: 67,382,601
Post employment debt: 15,832,268
Other, not defined: 49,343,830
TOTAL: $270,944,173
The IMRF pension fund is 93.4% funded, they don’t mess around. These are also the administrators that required additional funds when employees were allowed to spike their pensions. Do you find it interesting that every employee pension except 1st responders are well funded?
Police pension funding is only at 52.6%, down from 56.8% last year.
Fire pension funding is only at 50.1%, down from 52.8% last year.
The unattainable goal is 100% funded by 2040. Like I’ve said many times, the wrong amendment is on the November 3rd ballot. Fixing pensions should have been instead of raising taxes. 100% funding will never be achieved because market corrections happen while pensioners still get paid meaning the fund never recovers from downturns without MILLIONS more from taxpayers.
In the case of the State of Illinois it’s at least BILLIONS.
See the data here: http://aws.org/H4HHBX
In case you forgot, Normal’s total debt as of 3/31/2020 was $226,798,794. https://blnnews.com/2020/10/05/normal-is/
Between Bloomington and Normal, debt is close to a half a BILLION dollars. Why can’t they work together to streamline government?
Because they don’t want to.
(Still think Public Art is a good idea? Wait until your taxes are raised to pay people not to work.)
Diane: You probably knew this, but just in case: The IMRF pensions are deducted from a government’s share of taxes collected by the state if they are not fully funded. Not so with police or fire. Bill Wills
I didn’t know that. I thought deductions were only made if cities fail to.
Thanks Mayor Little Man! Now go back to your under worked overpaid University job.
FYI: I am naming my favorite pot hole on Hershey Road, “Tari Crater” in honor of your accomplishments!
It is important to keep the pension funding in perspective. For example, the police fund has enough money currently involved to fund every current member for the next 50 years without any additional funding from taxpayers . We need to remember that these funds increase as investments over time.
It is my belief that the statutory requirements are too high and fail to place a real requirement on fund performance over time.
They decreased last year!
Please allow me to borrow from Mr. Carville.
It’s the penlsions stupid!
Police: $78 million
Fire: $67 million.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s half a Billion, not trillion, right?
You passed!