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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Fake news.
Half of STATE spending on public education goes to pensions.
The $13,077 figure includes LOCAL and state spending.
Not to mention the statistics were measured in different years.
As a rough fact check, there are about 2 million children in Illinois K-12 public education.
The FY 2016 State Contribution to TRS was approximately $3.7B.
$3,7B / 2M = $1,850.
$3,700 is nowhere close to $13,077.
By the way, the $13,077 includes Federal spending too, but not does not account for overhead at the Illinois State Board of Education or US Department of Education, and various other smaller items that could be arguably included.
A better way to phrase that is about 14% of the $13,077 Illinois spends per student goes to the state pension contribution (not 50%). Adding the Employer and Employee contributions would add about $1B additional going to TRS (over and above the State contribution), bringing $3.7B to $4.7B. Using that figure, $4.7B / 2M = $2,350 per pupil for pension contributions. $2,350 / $13,077 per pupil expenditures = 18% of spending on public education ends up going to pensions (not 50%). As a footnote, the $13,077 figure is for FY 2014. If one wants more precise figures, the FY 2014… Read more »
And yet another point.
The above refers to only TRS pensions (teachers and most administrators).
Many school districts also participate in another pension system known as IMRF for various support and operational employees whom are non certified staff.
No clue of the total Employer and Employee contributions from school districts to IMRF for any given year.
So overall pension contributions as a percentage of per pupil spending (TRS + IMRF) are higher than indicated above.
IMRF includes many local government employers, not just school districts.
Mike – Does that 18% included pension debt or is that just the normal cost for the year?