{"id":1475139,"date":"2024-07-03T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1475139"},"modified":"2024-07-03T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T20:45:00","slug":"chicagos-worst-in-nation-pension-crisis-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/chicagos-worst-in-nation-pension-crisis-strikes-again\/1475139\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago’s Worst-In-Nation Pension Crisis Strikes Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago’s Worst-In-Nation Pension Crisis Strikes Again<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Nick Binotti and Ted Dabrowski via Wirepoints.org,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Wirepoints recently warned in\u00a0a Chicago Sun-Times oped<\/a>\u00a0that Chicago\u2019s pension mess was going to get worse. As Chicago\u2019s latest annual financial\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0shows, that\u2019s just what happened.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s pension shortfall across the city\u2019s four major retirement funds \u2013 Municipal, Laborers, Police and Fire \u2013 rose to $37.2 billion total in 2023. That\u2019s a 5% increase from $35.4 billion reported the prior year. Most of the increase is attributed to changes in actuarial assumptions and recent legislation that sweetened the cost-of-living pension benefit for thousands of police and firefighters.<\/p>\n

Add in the Teachers Pension Fund\u2019s $15.8 billion shortfall and Chicagoans are on the hook for $53 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. That\u2019s over $45,000 owed per Chicago household to be paid off over time.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Chicago teachers and municipal pension funds have the highest unfunded liabilities with both just under $16 billion. The police pension fund is next with nearly $14 billion. The fire and laborers pension systems have unfunded liabilities of $5.7 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s five largest systems are only 30% funded collectively. Only the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund has a funding ratio above 40%. Chicago\u2019s municipal, police and fire pension systems each have funding ratios around only 22%, among the worst in the country for major pension funds.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s pension debt continues to increase slowly and steadily year after year. It\u2019s what we described as a\u00a0\u201cslow-boil\u201d<\/a>\u00a0where Chicagoans are increasingly burdened with higher taxes for the same or less amount of services, disparately impacting the city\u2019s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Mayor Brandon Johnson\u00a0Pension Working Group<\/a>\u00a0has yet to come up with a plan to cool down that boil. In an\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0to Mayor Johnson and an\u00a0Oped in the Chicago Tribune<\/a>, Wirepoints and the Taxpayer Pension Alliance outlined a number of actions the city could take to get\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0control over the problem.<\/p>\n

Here are key measures of Chicago\u2019s crisis we provided to the mayor on January 10, 2024:<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Chicago\u2019s pension costs and its unfunded liability make the city the extreme outlier nationally when it comes to the burden it creates on its residents and its budget.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The fixed costs of Chicago\u2019s pension and general\u00a0debts\u00a0makes the city uncompetitive<\/a>\u00a0vis-a-vis the nation\u2019s other big cities. Those costs will continue to negatively impact taxes and services, further pressuring the city\u2019s out-migration, home values and quality-of-life issues.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s pension funds are running out of money and are among the worst funded in the country when measured by the ratio of assets a plan has relative to its yearly payout. Those asset-to-payout ratios have collapsed to single digits over the last two decades, reflecting the funds\u2019 fall towards insolvency. Healthy funds have a ratio of 20 or more.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago can\u2019t increase taxes without inflicting even more damage to its economic competitiveness. Chicago commercial property taxes are already the nation\u2019s highest among big cities.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The city\u2019s lack of competitiveness across fiscal and quality-of-life issues, including crime and education, has had a dramatic impact on Chicagoans\u2019 home values. The expectation of higher taxes and cuts in services will continue to put pressure on Chicago home values.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The catch-all impact of the burdens and quality-of-life issues Chicagoans face is reflected by the city\u2019s long-term population decline.<\/strong> When compared to the turn of the millennium, Chicago and Detroit are the only major cities to suffer a loss of people.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago has the worst credit rating in the country among big cities with the exception of Detroit. Chicago was able to shed its junk rating only because of the billions in federal public and private aid during covid. The city\u2019s pension crisis will reemerge as those federal funds dry up.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s pension crisis will not be solved via more reamortizations, pension obligation bonds or tax hikes. Such \u201cfixes\u201d will only prolong and further exacerbate the city\u2019s housing, migration and quality-of-life issues.\u00a0 Instead, a comprehensive, long-term solution, based on actuarial best practices, is essential to restoring confidence and competitiveness to Chicago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 07\/03\/2024 – 12:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/chicagos-worst-nation-pension-crisis-strikes-again<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago’s Worst-In-Nation Pension Crisis Strikes Again Authored by Nick Binotti and Ted Dabrowski via Wirepoints.org, Wirepoints recently warned in\u00a0a Chicago Sun-Times oped\u00a0that Chicago\u2019s pension mess…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1475140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6bKz","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/Chicago-pension-shortfall-has-gr-OWxJvu.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1475140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}