{"id":335298,"date":"2010-02-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef012877b18f44970c"},"modified":"2010-02-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T05:00:00","slug":"illinois-worst-in-setting-aside-cash-for-government-employee-retirement-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/335298","title":{"rendered":"Illinois worst in setting aside cash for government employee retirement, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Posted by Bob Secter<\/em> at 11:00 p.m.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>No state has done worse than Illinois in setting aside funds to pay the pension and health care benefits promised to retirees in public sector jobs, according to a study released today by the Pew Center for the States. <br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>That dubious distinction bestowed by the non-partisan Washington-based think tank weighs heavily over Illinois\u2019s current budget mess that has left Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers with a coming record $13 billion deficit in the state\u2019s main checkbook to try and close by summer.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>The Pew report found that states collectively are $1 trillion in arrears in setting aside funds to cover pension and health care promises to current and future retirees \u2014 and nearly one-tenth of that total was from Illinois alone. <\/p>\n<p><\/br>\u201cThe growing bill coming due could have significant consequences \u2014 higher taxes, less money for public services and lower state bond ratings,\u201d warned Susan Urahn, the Pew Center&#8217;s managing director.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>That day of reckoning appears fast approaching. The state\u2019s bond ratings already are crashing and pension costs, if fully met, could top $5 billion next year \u2014 nearly one-fifth what the state is spending to fund day to day operations in the current fiscal year.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>The Pew report found that as of the mid-2008, Illinois had funded just 54 percent of what was then a $119 billion obligation to its public employee pension funds. And that may understate the problem. A more recent estimate from the legislature\u2019s bipartisan fiscal watchdog agency pegged the funding ration at a hair under 50 percent by the end of last June.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>Pew also said that Illinois had set aside less than 1 percent of the funds it need to pay for $40 billion in health care and other benefits promised public sector retirees. <br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>Despite the recession, Urahn said Illinois and other states with huge pension and health care debts will only make the situation worse by not addressing it now.<br \/><\/br><br \/><\/br>\u201cThe future fiscal burden will be enormous,\u201d she said. \u201cPostponing a solution will only leave states and their taxpayers in worse shape and lead to higher taxes or cuts in important services.\u201d <br \/><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted by Bob Secter at 11:00 p.m.No state has done worse than Illinois in setting aside funds to pay the pension and health care benefits promised to retirees in public sector jobs, according to a study released today by the Pew Center for the States. That dubious distinction bestowed by the non-partisan Washington-based think tank [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}