Illinois’s pension debt is causing the spending for other community events and projects to be be reallocated in order to make sure that the State can cover pension systems, which hurts those communities, as well as puts a strain on the taxpayer’s wallet.
“It’s making it impossible for these mayors to manage their budget because they’ve basically been saddled with this huge expense by state law that’s protected by the State Constitution,” says Senior Director of Budget and Tax Research at Illinois Policy Adam Schuster. Local leadership is left with no options as far as pension reform or making the costs most sustainable.
A general belief is that the state of Illinois has only 5 retirement systems, but there are about 650 other local pension systems that adds another 75 billion dollars in debt, which leaves the average taxpayer is about forty five-thousand dollars in state and local pension debt.
“Over the last decade or so, you’ve a steady increase in support for pension reform among the public,” Schuster says. “In the legislature right now, there are essentially no Democrats who are seriously talking about this problem or have anything close to a viable solution.”
According to Schuster, outside of politics, the pension reform is a bipartisan issue, leaving Illinoisans wondering what to expect.
Adam Schuster joins Annie this morning to break it down.
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