Pension costs now consume nearly 70 percent of the city’s annual property tax levy. It may not be enough.

Comment: We don’t get why Illinois Policy Institute would reverse its opinion about SB1, the 2016 pension reform bill later invalidated by the courts. We will be writing more about that soon. Linked here is a separate article on the same topic by Austin Berg of the Institute.

Comment: Hmm.

A recent report by Fitch Ratings expressly questioned the CTBA’s ideas for “reamortization” and pension obligation bonds for the state — ideas Governor-elect Prtizker has said he is “seriously considering.”

Comment: The news article that Jim Dey politely criticizes here is a Chicago Tribune article headlined, “Fitch Ratings Inc. says Illinois’ out-migration a ‘long-established’ trend that hasn’t hurt state’s economic growth.” That article was in fact horribly distorted. The Fitch research report by no means dismissed out-migration as a problem, saying expressly that out-migration from Illinois since the Great Recession is part of of the problem.

A republication of our Wirepoints article.

The solution to the state’s multifaceted pension crisis should be crystal clear to taxpayers. The Illinois Supreme Court isn’t going to budge. The pension clause needs to be amended.