Part 1 of 2 on just how completely broken the City’s pension system has become.
Chicago’s public pension funds are teetering on the brink of insolvency in large part because city officials and union leaders repeatedly exploited the system, draining away billions of dollars in the last decade to serve short-term political needs….
As a result, the funds soon may not be able to keep promises that are codified in the state constitution, threatening the retirements of tens of thousands of rank-and-file union members and leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars owed to teachers, police officers, firefighters and others.
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Even if all retirement benefits were cut off today, every man, woman and child in Chicago would owe more than $7,000 to cover obligations already incurred — an amount that doesn’t include state pension debt of about $60 billion.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 12,910,409 people living in the State of Illinois. Take the state’s pension debt of $60 billion and divide and you get $4,647.41 in state pension debt per person. Add that to the $7,000 for us city folk and you get $11,647.
But that’s not all the debt. Oh no, far from. According to these people here, the state debt per citizen is $12,136 (as of this writing.) So us city folk owe at least $19,000 a-piece in debt between the city and state. That doesn’t include any Cook County or Federal debt either.
Think about that — nearly $20,000 every person in this city already owes.
If you’re not already very angry, you will be shortly when you’re asked to start paying the bill.