Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
10 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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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.
Tier 2 assumptions should scare all these ratings agencies. I guarantee you Tier 2 will be enhanced multiple times in the upcoming decades, yet every assumption made today regarding pension funding assumes nothing will change.
My guess is that the state will re-amortize pension debt, then will greatly enhance Tier 2 benefits to a point where they almost equal Tier 1, then the pension obligations will look just like they were before the re-amortization. Same as it ever was.
My money is on the following Tier 2 pension enhancements: Retirement Eligibility: Reduce the minimum age to receive full pension benefits w/ no penalty from 67 to 62 (probably 60). This is going to be the biggest stickler for teachers who already reached full pension vesting of 75% and can no longer accumulate service years. Probably helps the most w/ the Safe Harbor rule too. Change the benefit formula: Decrease the highest average salary calculation from the 8 consecutive years’ salaries to 4 (like today). They already did this for safety personnel. Annual Cost-of-living Adjustments: Raise COLA from 1/2 CPI… Read more »