From Crain’s Chicago Business | Every Chicago resident is on the hook for a whopping $5,821 in unfunded liability for pension promises to city and Cook County public employees. According to a new study of 10 funds — including from the city, Cook County, Chicago Public Schools, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Chicago Park District and the Chicago Transit Authority — the average fund had only 67.2% of the investments on hand at the end of fiscal 2008 that will be needed to pay retirement benefits.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
When are all the citizens of this state going to wake up and hold the politicians accountable for this stuff. We can no longer afford to offer such sweet pension programs to municipal and state employees. How many people in the private sector have pension plans anymore? Hardly any. It is time for people to make tough choices and at the very least stop these programs for new hires or recently hired individuals. It isn’t fair to change the plan for the current retirees but we need to stop the bleeding in the future.
Chicago is not alone. For the big picture on a daily basis visit PensionTsunami.com.