Taxpayers Bear The Brunt of Increasing Pension CostsArchived Message
Posted by Bluangel on February 23, 2020, 10:49 am
Under Illinois pension law, each pension system is required to reach 90 percent funding by 2045. For this to happen, taxpayers will have to pay greater and greater contribution costs going forward to pay for both the systems' normal cost and its current unfunded liabilities.
A common refrain sounded by public sector unions is that government workers have consistently “paid their share” into Illinois’ pension systems and the state has not.
However, the facts tell a different story.
While government worker contributions to Illinois’ five pension systems have increased by 75 percent since 1998, taxpayer contributions have increased by 427 percent over the same period. In 2012 alone, Illinois taxpayers contributed $3.5 billion more to the pension systems than state workers did.
Government workers’ share, as a percentage of total contributions, has continued to decline when compared to taxpayers’ contributions. In 1998, government workers paid for 47 percent of the state’s total pension contribution; today, they only pay 21 percent. By 2045, government workers will be expected to pay only 17 percent of total pension contributions.
on February 23, 2020, 10:49 am