The Chicago Sun-Times printed an OpEd by Wirepoints, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Technology and Manufacturing Association and the Center for Pension Integrity – all members of the Taxpayer Pension Alliance – that warns Chicagoans are being burned by the proverbial “slow boil” that’s wiping out retirement security for city workers, burdening residents with increasingly punitive taxes and depressing opportunities for the city’s most vulnerable.
We haven’t heard much about Chicago’s pension problem in recent years because of the big tax revenues the city took in as a result of the federal COVID-19 bailouts. But the city’s pension shortfall did grow by $10 billion over the last five years. Count on renewed warnings of a crisis as the COVID money runs dry.
Johnson and his working group have the unenviable task of addressing Chicago’s pensions. With the city in such dire straits, they have just one path forward: recommend real, structural solutions. Otherwise, Chicagoans will eventually be cooked.
Read the Taxpayer Pension Alliance’s open letter to Mayor Johnson.
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Start with bankruptcy, void all pensions, and start over.
PUBLIC unions should be made ILLEGAL the people (who are paying) are not allowed fair arbitration.
Also apply a 10% surcharge on any state pension paid to someone out of state.
Blah, blah and blah so more. Its a nothing burger legally and just another rant.
And please explain to us what a 75 yr old retiree with a city pension and no social security, you know that earned social security benefits were taken away or reduced by a minimum of 60% from people who have a municipal pension, is supposed to do when their possibly only income source is the pension. Please enlighten us.
Find some honest work for once their life.
Problem will exist till the State Constitution is changed. You will die of old age first.
Investment banks will eventually quit buying the municipal bonds of Chicago and it will suddenly reach an abrupt, painful end. Public Housing on LaSalle Street will only accelerate the collapse.
It has only been getting worse year after year. Taxes will continue to rise for many years to come. Just look at the cash flow projections,3% annual increase for 30 plus years. Raise taxes on the high-income earners and they leave making matters worse.
This is because we have useless idiots running the state
You have the freedom to move out of Chicago and into Indiana if you are tired of being taxed into the poor house.
Pensions should be capped at 100,000 per year max.
eliminate the 3% COLA for 3 years, then CPI, or whichever is greater.
eliminate pensions for all elected officials hoping forward
put a surtax of 1% on incomes over 200,000, and an additional 1% for each subsequent 100,000.
term limits, public financing not campaigns, eliminate PACS and prohibit pols from becoming lobbyists.
also cap admin costs and fees for any government contract
IL law says otherwise, and surely you know that. So, what shall we make of your screed here that’s even halfway worth pondering in real-world terms?
It’s funny that you equate IL law with real world. The two couldn’t be farther apart, at least until money starts growing on trees.
The real world? The Chicago pension debt sits at 45,000 per household. But how many bring in enough income to make a dent in that debt? 20 percent? That figure might be high. So the per household debt for the group that could even begin to draw down that debt is enormous. And the City must encourage that group to stay and be productive. I applaud WP for focusing on Chicago because it is where the problem is most acute. The State is relevant in that they have no money to rescue the City. I recall when Johnson was elected… Read more »
James this is destroying the quality of life for most private citizens of Illinois.
Not that a public sector lacking would care.
People are fleeing the state in larger numbers every year. Sooner or later there will be no money to pay for pensions. Maybe the new poor uneducated immigrants will pay the bills or maybe not. Best of luck in getting what was promised.
Spot on Rob. Let’s call it the “Bring Chicago Property Tax Payers Home” bill.
COLA raises for city funds are not compounded but are based on the original pension amount and do not increase unlike state pensions.
It’s amazing what people think they know City COLA’S Are Absolutely Compounded 3%
Sorry pal, been collecting one for many years and they are not compounded. It’s amazing thst idiots like you comment on something you know nothing about.
I’ve been collecting a pension check for over 20 years Dunce and my check has been collecting 3% Compounded Interest ever year now I have no idea what useless job you had but obviously you weren’t in again kind of Union job
Sorry to tell you that you are wrong and you are, but if you are receiving a pension from the fire department or the police department the annual raise is not compounded, period. A 3% annual increase is based on the amount of the original pension annuity and it never changes. That COLA, based on the original annuity, is added every January 1st. Maybe you don’t understand what compounding is, figures. Then again maybe you had one of those city union jobs like a plumber, carpenter, electrician etc that had to go beg the local alderman for and always bought… Read more »
The MEABF, municipal employees pension fund, does not receive compounded pension increases as well. So CFD, CPD and MEABF pensions are not compounded. You probably were a union slug deeply in service to the local pols and proud that you never got your hands dirty doing your over taxing “union job”. If you are covered under LABF fund you are one of the very small minority of retirees who are getting a compounded COLA and only if you are Tier 1. LABF in total make up less than 5% of city retirees and Tier 1 retirees are less than that… Read more »
Cat got your tongue? Or you just can’t stand the fact that your union job didn’t make you very smart.
The only good sign for Illinois taxpayers is the LEAVING ILLINOIS sign on the Interstate as you drive away for the last time.
It’s the same feeling the Israelites must have had when they finally left Egypt.
Well the Pharoh came after them but the Red Sea took care of that. Kinda like Cali trying to get into the pocketbooks of Californians that have left. I expect Illinois will come up something along these lines and there’s no Moses around here.
And BJ wants $1 billion bond issuance for more spending.
Unlike Detroit, Chicago doesn’t own an art museum full of saleable grand master paintings to secure its debt-restructuring payments. Chicago doesn’t even own its parking meters. Maybe Chicago will resort to selling Chicago Park District park parcels to secure its debt-restructuring.
I’ve heard talk of selling ‘naming rights’ for ‘The Bean’ and ‘Buckingham Fountain’…tackiness is befitting.
“and maybe it never will” – OK Alice you and the Mad Hatter might want to sit down with the Cheshire Cat and talk some reality.
Shocker, WP article in ST??? Ted/ Mark what’s the inside story??
Well the inside story is that the Slum Times doesn’t have investigative reporters so they jobbed it out to Ted and Mark!
Mark-Do you know what the pension management fees are for all the Chicago pension funds? What have the returns been the last few years? It would seem to be King Solomon’s Mines (Steward Granger version) for a select few who are politically connected.