Editorial: A sexy novel for the beach? How about a radical state pension-funding idea instead?

Chicago Tribune

16-06-2025

To anyone looking for light summer reading, here's a tip: Stay away from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
The civic do-gooders at CTBA, as it's known, are pushing a complicated solution to Illinois' ongoing pension crisis. Their latest report pairs nicely with the likewise complicated solutions advanced by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club and Gov. JB Pritzker himself.
We pore over this stuff so you don't have to, and here's the familiar story: The state's grossly underfunded public-employee pension systems are getting ever more costly to sustain. Those costs are swamping other priorities, from law enforcement to education to transportation. And any fix worth the name is going to be — that's right! — complicated.
It's tempting to let out a groan and move on. After all, our clout-rich governor has failed to get his preferred version of these pension-funding rescue plans through a General Assembly packed with his fellow Democrats. From Pritzker on down, the political will to force the issue is missing, and, so far, CTBA's idea has gone nowhere as well, even though it deserves more serious consideration than it's getting.
In a 15-page report and 10-page PowerPoint, the group proposes 'reamortization' of state pensions. Its plan is roughly akin to the state of Illinois taking out a home equity loan and refinancing its mortgage, albeit on a grand scale.
The state would issue almost $10 billion in new pension obligation bonds over five years, putting every penny of the proceeds into the pension funds. Illinois would change the timing of its annual payments to the funds from the end of the fiscal year to the beginning, an administrative step that saves taxpayers a surprisingly large amount. Crucially, the deal would replace 1990s-era legislation that shortchanged pensions in its early years while ramping up costs in later years.
The bill for that so-called pension ramp is coming due with a vengeance. Left unchecked, it will eat into more and more of each year's budget. CTBA says its plan could smooth out the ramp and achieve 100% funding of the pension systems by 2048 (up from the ramp's 90% goal) at a cost of $23.8 billion less than current law would provide. No tax increase is required.
'This is ambitious, for sure,' Ralph Martire, CTBA's enthusiastic executive director, told us in a recent meeting. 'I don't think anyone needs it as much as we do.'
Saving tens of billions sure sounds like a no-brainer. But it's also, yes, complicated, and risky, too.
One big risk comes with issuing billions in new bonds. Those are known as 'hard debt' because they must be paid on time, or the state's credit rating gets trashed. The current unfunded pension liabilities are 'soft debt,' which the state has juggled for years to postpone a reckoning even as its credit rating for 'hard debt' has improved under Pritzker's tenure.
Pulling off those massive bond issuances would require a leap of faith. Under disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the state issued billions in pension bonds but diverted a big chunk of the proceeds to plug immediate budget holes. 'The primary risk is that the money isn't used for pensions,' Martire noted, and temptations are sure to arise with 'emergency' funding demands for, say, transit or schools.
During its spring session, instead of seriously considering a comprehensive pension rescue option, the General Assembly focused on digging an even deeper hole for taxpayers.
Unions want to add billions in pension costs to upgrade the benefits for public employees hired after 2011. That Tier 2 pension system may indeed need additional funding to bring it up to minimal federal standards. But as far as we can tell, no one in Springfield has done the homework to determine what's absolutely required, vs. part of an unaffordable wish list.
As usual, Chicago is leading the state in soaking taxpayers. In the waning days of the spring session, we have already lamented, Illinois lawmakers awarded some Chicago police officers and firefighters more lucrative pensions that will cost tens of millions of dollars in the first year and billions over time. Sweeteners for the statewide Tier 2 pension plans have been tabled for now, but you can bet more backroom deals are coming.
We understand it's a lot more fun for politicians to give away taxpayer money than to painstakingly claw the state out of its deep hole. It's also more fun to read a bestselling novel than a dense pension-rescue proposal — or an editorial on the topic, for that matter. So thanks for getting this far.
Still, every year it gets harder and harder to ignore these enormous unfunded obligations. Public employees are entitled to the retirement benefits they earned during their service. The simple way to pay for these obligations is to drastically raise taxes. That's unfair, and it would be a disaster for Illinois, chasing away its most productive citizens and businesses and making the state uncompetitive for future generations.
The risky and complicated way to deal with the obligations involves plans like those of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. This board has also long advocated for a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to address its rigid pension clause. The state needs to think big and pursue a path other than taxing its way out of this ever-more-threatening disaster.
Governor, legislators, put away the sunscreen and get serious.