Editorial: Chicago can’t afford $3 billion more in pension obligations

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From the Editorial Board: Legislation advancing in Springfield increases firefighter pensions and potentially adds $3 billion of unfunded costs for Chicago. That could lead to big fiscal trouble.

Firefighters battle a three-alarm fire in an occupied four-story apartment building in the 5100 block of Chicago's South Kenwood Avenue on Dec. 6, 2022.

In April, two bills passed out of committee in the General Assembly that would boost the pension benefits of Chicago firefighters hired after 2010. One would increase cost-of-living adjustments, and the other would boost the final average salary used in determining a pension. Two years ago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a measure that similarly granted higher cost-of-living increases to Chicago firefighters. At the time, Pritzker claimed that selling the state-owned James R. Thompson Center would pay for his giveaway by putting that public building back on the property tax rolls, and he took an undeserved bow for supporting first responders.

What structural changes? Well, probably more taxes. Illinois, for instance, could boost its revenues by taxing retirement income and/or by extending its sales tax to professional services, steps certain to anger important constituents. But what it needs most is an amendment to the Illinois Constitution that eliminates the pension protection clause, the key legal obstacle to necessary reforms.

 

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