Think Public Pensions Can’t Be Cut? Think Again. – Governing

The only truly secure guarantee that a public employee has is a fully funded pension system. But that's a guarantee that's likely to become rarer as cities face mounting fiscal strains. Of the nation's 89,000 local governments, some 11,000 have defaulted on bonds at some point in our history. As pension costs continue to escalate, it's nearly certain that the number of defaults will rise. How lucky do you feel? Will your city run out of money?
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Andrew Szakmary
6 years ago

As an Illinois public pensioner I am acutely aware that my pension may be cut at some point, constitutional guarantees notwithstanding. However, those of you expecting to receive Social Security, Medicare or a Federal pension should not exactly feel smug either. According to Moody’s, the unfunded liabilities of these 3 Federal programs combined was just over $20 Trillion last year, vs. a combined total of $3.5 Trillion for all state and local government pensions (https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-US-government-pension-shortfall-overshadowed-by-Social-Security-Medicare–PR_346878). Now I get that the feds can – in theory – print money, but I’m not sure how that would work in practice with an… Read more »

Adam
6 years ago

The global economy is headed for complete collapse sooner than later. All this arguing over pensions of Social Security doesn’t really matter in the end. The human race is overpopulated and doomed, and our time is about out. When the global economy collapses in less than thirty years, much of humanity will not make it.

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A statewide concern: Illinois’ population decline outpaces neighboring states – Wirepoints on ABC20 Champaign

“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”

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