Pension Reform Law Won't Fix Fiscal Problems

"Illinois has two very serious fiscal problems: 1) a large and growing gap between sustainable revenues and projected spending levels, and 2) the largest-in-the-nation unfunded pension liability. The December 2013 changes to Illinois pension law — should they survive a constitutional challenge — eliminate the unfunded pension liability problem over the next 25 years.

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Unfortunately, the pension law changes do not even come close to solving the structural budget deficit problem.

For the past six years the Fiscal Futures Project at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs has developed a robust measure of the state’s fiscal problems and a technique for projecting the gap between total revenue and total spending into the future. Our measure is broad-based, takes a long-term perspective, and focuses on sustainable revenue." READ MORE

Title: “Pension reform law won’t fix Illinois’ fiscal woes”

Author: Richard F. Dye

Source: Chicago SunTimes

Date Published: January 22, 2014