By: Diane Benjamin
I got this adorable insert with a tiny State Tax refund check:
Illinois is spending more funding pensions than they do on K-12 education. It proves who is a priority in Illinois. Keep reading, expect the almost 20% of all spending to increase.
The back side brags about Illinois collecting $2 billion more in 2023 than 2022. General Revenue funds were $53.1 billion. That’s YOUR money.
Pension funding isn’t available yet for 2023, the below is from 2022. Illinois has 5 pensions systems:
TRS-Teachers Retirement System
SERS-State Employees Retirement System
SURS-State Universities Retirement System
JRS-Judges Retirement System
GARS-General Assembly Retirement System
All 5 are poorly funded, the Springfield folks allocating spending evidently aren’t planning to collect a pension. Many Republican representatives have opted out because being a State representative isn’t meant to be a career. All pension funds are dependent to the Return on Investment. Tax payers are on the hook when the markets crash.
PDF page 52 https://cgfa.ilga.gov/Upload/FinCondILStateRetirementSysFY%202022.pdf
.
Compare those numbers with 10 years earlier:
PDF page 33 https://cgfa.ilga.gov/Upload/FinCondILStateRetirementSysFY2012Feb2013.pdf
.
Pensions in 2022 are marginally better funded while Accrued Liability and Unfunded Liability are both much higher.
Expect this fleece to continue since nobody in charge wants the system fixed.
Expect even more of your taxes going to pensions in the future too.
The whole system needs to crash but too many get wealthy off “collection” weaponizing and stealing from vulnerable taxpayers (then brag bout their accomplishments)
Students and kids get little of the pie
The numbers are bad, but not as bad as they appear. Remember, the accrued liability is based on every single employee leaving work today, not necessarily just retirement. Every new employee’s lifetime liabilities get added to that figure each year, so I don’t envision pensions ever being fully funded without hiring freezes and no-wage-increase contracts.