Spate of Illinois cities woefully short on pension funding
Steve Balich Editors Note: When Public Sector Employees get a yearly increase in pay, there comes a point that taxes are no longer enough to pay for any necessary operations of Government. Pensions will eat up all the tax dollars. It is or soon will be a point when so many people leave that the remaining people are not enough to pay for the pensions. Then what?
The Solution is simple. Change the Constitution to allow for a 401k system with no yearly 3% increase like IMRF. You can’t take away what was promised, but you just don’t make that promise with new people, or those that wish to change to the new system. Understand a new employee looses all the pension if they are not vested. With a 401k style, the employees owns the plan and can take it with them if they change jobs or leave it to their family if they pass away.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT #sbalich #tcot #twill #eyesrightopen #maga #Illinois #pensions #unfundedliability #debt #publicsector
By Chris Adams |
The pension funds of many municipal public safety agencies in Illinois are experiencing extreme shortfalls in their funding. | PixabayShare to Facebook, Number of sharesShare to TwitterShare to Reddit, Number of sharesMore AddThis Share options, Number of shares
Municipalities across Illinois are struggling to maintain the pensions of their public safety entities as the funds continue to shrink.
East St. Louis and Granite City are just two of the cities that have fallen short of funding their police and fire pensions. In East St. Louis, the firefighters’ fund sustained a shortfall of $2.2 million in fiscal year (FY) 2017 and FY 2018. Policy watchdog Wirepoints reported that the city’s police pension was short by $1.7 million for the same time span.
Granite City’s police pension is only 29 percent funded, and its fire fund is even lower at 21 percent.
Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton
“Incrementally, each year we’ve added about $200,000 in total to those pensions,” Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton told the Metro East Sun in reference to his city.
Edwardsville, which is in the same region as East St. Louis and Granite City, has increased its contributions to these funds during the past five years but the city’s funding percentage position has worsened, Patton said.
“In terms of our annual contribution, we pay $900,000 a year to those pensions . . . and that’s an annual increase on top of what we were contributing back in 2014,” Patton said.
The mayor said Edswardsville’s pension fund woes are a great concern to the community, and a police and fire pension task force has been formed. They are two meetings into a two-month review and will report their findings to the city council in November.
The Illinois Comptroller has already intercepted the tax revenues of three cities on behalf of pension fund trustees.
Wirepoints noted that the pension issue in Illinois is only in its initial stage with nearly 200 of the state’s 650 public safety pensions less than 50 percent funded and, regardless of the country’s robust economy and strong stock market, the pension funds are still floundering.
