(The Center Square) – After just days of being on the job, new Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has convened a “working group” of individuals to come up with solutions to the state’s long held and deeply-rooted pension troubles.
“Together, with our state legislative partners in Springfield, I am establishing a working group to collaborate on finding a sustainable path forward to addressing existing gaps in the city’s four municipal pension systems,” Johnson told reporters. “The working group’s mission is to find workable solutions with sustainable funding sources to ensure retirement security and taxpayer relief in the long term in time for the fall veto session.”
With the city strapped with liabilities now pegged at $33.7 billion, the group includes the mayor’s finance team, state lawmakers and labor representatives. While all four city employee pension funds show recent signs of improvement in the area of funding ratios, each of them remains low with the firefighters’ fund just 20.93% funded, the police fund at 23.54%, the municipal fund at 23.41% funded and the laborers’ at 45.92%.
As the lead sponsor of several pending pension benefits bills, state Sen. Robert Martwick was among the lawmakers tapped by Gov. J.B. Pritzker for the work group.
“We have to look at all the tools like bonding and revenue sources,” Martwick said. “I think there is going to be a strong desire to find a way to get the funds back to fiscal health and instill in those funds legislative guardrails to make sure the funds stay on track.”
For that to happen Martwick argues all the bases need to be covered.
“My hope is that we look at the city’s long-term financial picture as it relates to pension obligations, look at the existing revenue sources like the casino funds coming in and the potential for other sources while making reforms,” he added. “It’s not just about the current budget, it’s about long-term finance and acknowledging the extent of the obligation.”
