08/27/2010

Chicago Suburb Examines Public Pensions

Today the Chicago Tribune ran a 'watchdog' type story highlighting two suburban Chicago police officials who's salaries jumped by more than 50% in their last year of employment.  The author draws the link between inflated final year salaries and every escalating pension liability.  Here's an excerpt:

Towns have long been aware of the financial time bomb created by pension deficits, but what happened in Chicago Ridge was hardly unique. Some municipalities are sweetening deals for their top police and fire administrators even as they call for pension reform in Springfield.

Illinois' pension system -- including police, fire and public-sector employees -- is the most underfunded in the nation, according to the Pew Center for the States, with only about half the assets needed to cover a staggering $60 billion in liabilities.

Check out: Padded pensions

Ian
By Ian
Aug 27, 2010 5:01:14 PM | Budget, Employee/Employer Relations, State Legislature

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
Testing Public Pension Options Public pension liability is a looming crisis that threatens long term fiscal stability in almost every state. A 2008 study by the Pew Center on the States found that there is a $1 trillion gap (yes, trillion with a T) between the money set aside by states for public sector pensions and the projected cost of fulfilling pension promises. Potential solutions to this problem have generally included: contributing more to public pension funds, improving investment fund oversight, and raising the retirement age and reducing benefits for newly hired public employees. None of these reform measures directly impact existing retirees, but...
PREVIOUS POST
Schwarzenegger Weighs in on Public Pensions You don't have to search long to find articles about public pension liability these days. And they are appearing in the biggest publications from high profile authors. Last Friday the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion column from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger focused on the retirement cost of California's public sector workforce. Here's an excerpt: As former Speaker of the State Assembly and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown pointed out earlier this year in the San Francisco Chronicle, roughly 80 cents of every government dollar in California goes to employee compensation and benefits. Those costs have been rising fast. Spending...

ACCE Webmaster

The Typepad Team

Search

My Other Accounts

Recent Comments