After noting that a quarter of the State of Illinois’s annual budget is devoted to paying public employee pensions, money that could be devoted to education, health care, or public safety, the editors of the Chicago Tribune go on to observe:
In a smarter Illinois, the Dems would “Let the people vote,†in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s memorable refrain, to permit reduction of public pension benefits earned in future years. But in the Illinois we have, a century of failure to rein in runaway pensions becomes an argument for higher tax rates. As if to tell taxpayers, Gosh, who knew this could happen? We didn’t think about runaway pension costs. Too bad — now give us more billions of tax dollars.
Literally all that would have been needed was to pay the amounts they’d promised into the various pension funds when they said they’d pay them.
How could they have known? They only had a full century of warnings.
Certainly, winning elections means policy that pleases the most voters in the short term. Question is, what’s different about Chicago? Not Every city or state shares this outcome.
A lot of cities and municipalities do. They’re either not as far along or we haven’t heard about it yet. Remember, if it isn’t reported, it isn’t happening.
The only state that matches Illinois for corruption is Louisiana. Not every state made the choice that Illinois’s legislators and governor did, to stop paying into the state’s public employees’ pension funds over a fifteen year period.
It’s exacerbated by demographics too. Often mentioned is Chicago’s falling population, I would imagine it’s aging as well.