{"id":48228,"date":"2019-09-03T18:27:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T23:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=48228"},"modified":"2019-09-03T18:27:37","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T23:27:37","slug":"illinois-financial-decay-spreads-to-cities-across-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=48228","title":{"rendered":"Illinois’ financial decay spreads to cities across the state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illinois’ financial decay spreads to cities across the state<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Illinois\u2019 finances aren\u2019t just decaying at the top<\/a>, they\u2019re falling apart everywhere. The state\u2019s one-size-fits-all<\/a> pension laws and overly generous benefits<\/a> have left many cities suffocating under impossible pension debts as their populations shrink<\/a>, tax burdens jump<\/a> and resident incomes stagnate<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without an amendment<\/a> to the Illinois Constitution\u2019s pension protection clause \u2013 and subsequent pension reforms \u2013 expect many cities to head toward insolvency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map below shows just how wide and deep the crisis is. Of the 630 downstate police and fire pension funds that reported data to the Illinois Department of Insurance in 2017, 57 percent had funded ratios lower than 60 percent. And nearly 100 funds had funded ratios below 40 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s worse, the downstate pension decline has occurred during one of the nation\u2019s longest-ever bull runs. If Illinois public safety pensions are doing this poorly in a great economy<\/a>, imagine their struggles during an eventual downturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

False, and true, solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illinois cities \u2013 from Kankakee to Danville<\/a> to Alton \u2013 need pension fixes before costs bankrupt them. And while state politicians have effectively quashed any chance for reforms now, that shouldn\u2019t stop city officials from demanding real changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real changes don\u2019t mean pension fund consolidations or tax hikes. Consolidation may reduce administrative costs and increase investment returns, but it\u2019ll do nothing to reduce the pension shortfalls. Not only that, but there\u2019s the risk lawmakers will try to bail out cities by taking over or socializing all downstate pension debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illinoisans should also beware the talk of a \u201cstatewide\u201d solution for the pension crisis. For politicians, a statewide \u201csolution\u201d isn\u2019t about passing reforms, it\u2019s about taxing everyone in Illinois. Chicago Fed economists have already suggested enacting a statewide 1 percent property tax<\/a> \u2013 on top of the nation\u2019s highest rates<\/a> Illinoisans already pay \u2013 to pay for the crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois’ financial decay spreads to cities across the state Illinois\u2019 finances aren\u2019t just decaying at the top, they\u2019re falling apart everywhere. The state\u2019s one-size-fits-all pension laws and overly generous benefits have left many cities suffocating under impossible pension debts as their populations shrink, tax burdens jump and resident incomes stagnate.  Without an amendment to the Illinois Constitution\u2019s pension protection clause \u2013 and subsequent pension reforms \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27085,9989,1816,27083],"class_list":["post-48228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-financial-decay","tag-illinois","tag-pensions","tag-ted-dabrowski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48229,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48228\/revisions\/48229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}