Chicago Police Pension Costs Seen Swelling With Proposed Law - Yahoo Finance
(Bloomberg) -- Chicago’s police pension obligations could increase by another $3 billion total through 2055 if the state of Illinois passes a proposed law designed to force the city to acknowledge its probable liabilities for annual pay increases to retirees.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick is preparing to push legislation in 2022 to change eligibility restrictions for cost of living adjustments for police retirees, saying current law understates the impact of those costs. The new law would bring rules for police in line with firefighters, and make the city’s future costs more transparent, he said.
“It’s making the unfunded liability reflect what the actual numbers are,” Martwick said in an interview regarding the bill he’s pressing for. “That will require the city to put in the necessary payment.”
Chicago officials oppose the measure, calling it a burden. The extra liabilities added would be “unaffordable,” said city Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett.
“It is something that we are very concerned about and monitoring very closely,” Bennett said in an interview regarding the legislation. The police cost of living adjustment “would be very expensive for the city.”
The legislation would remove a requirement that police retirees be born before 1966 to be eligible for a 3% automatic annual increase in payments. Martwick says the state legislature repeatedly has made the required birth date later to include more retirees, meaning the actual costs for Chicago end up being higher than expected.
‘Sizable’ Shortfall
Underfunded pensions are a problem for city and state governments nationwide. But the shortfall is particularly acute in Chicago.
source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chicago-police-pension-costs-could-154757610.html
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.