Illinois Pension Facts

Illinois state and local government retirement shortfalls grew to a record $530 billion in 2020, according to the latest data from Moody’s Investors Service.

That translates to an average burden of $110,000 in pension and retiree health debt for every household in Illinois. Illinoisans’ debt is made up of $313 billion in unfunded pension debt for Illinois’ five state-run pension funds, $54 billion in state retiree health insurance shortfalls, $9 billion in state pension obligation bonds, $122 billion in Chicago-area shortfalls and $32 billion in other local government retirement debts.

Illinois’ official calculations also reached a negative milestone of their own this year: state and local retirement debts crossed the $300 billion mark in 2020. Any way you cut the numbers, retirement debts are reaching record levels in Illinois.

Wirepoints has compiled pension facts based on official government and Moody’s-calculated data. Click below for more information about Illinois’ state and local pension and retiree health funds.

The growth in Illinois’ retirement debts to half-a-trillion dollars is yet another grim reminder of how lawmakers’ refusal to address the pension crisis does real harm to ordinary residents. These outsized debts have contributed directly to Illinois’ other crises, including the state’s worst-in-the-nation credit rating, the 2nd-highest property taxes and the nation’s 5th-worst decline in real home values.