The good news: The combined funding level of Chicago’s four direct pension funds — fire, laborers, municipal employees, and police — increased by 2.4%, reaching 25.4% at the end of 2024 compared to 2023.
The bad news: That funding level is still just 25.4%.
To put this in perspective, publicly held companies are required to maintain pension funding levels of at least 100%. It’s widely accepted that state and local governments should aim for at least 80%. IBM, for example, has 123% of its pension liabilities funded, and the state of Virginia is at 81%.
Chicago’s pension crisis has been unfolding for over two decades. But now, more than at any point in the past 25 years, the situation is critical. There’s a very small margin between 25.4% and 0%. And with legislation awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature that would enhance benefits for police and fire pensions, projections show funding levels could drop to just 18% in the coming years. That leaves even less room before hitting zero. Our retired city of Chicago employees — and those planning to retire — deserve far better.
The pension funding level (or “funded ratio”) measures a fund’s financial health. It represents the amount of money currently on hand compared to what’s needed to meet all current and future obligations. For context, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Chicago’s pension funds were fully funded or close to it. In 2005, the combined funded ratio was closer to 70%. By the end of 2024, it had plummeted to 25.4%.
Mayor Johnson’s “Tax the Rich” rhetoric masks his intent to solve Chicago’s budget woes with a Seattle style “gross-receipts tax” on business payrolls that projects to raise $1.5B. The group behind the tax is the Institute for the Public Good, which is aligned with the CTU.
Should it pass, or any version of the city’s old Head Tax — a per-employee tax on Chicago businesses — the big sucking sound you hear will be businesses and jobs exiting Chicago.
Meanwhile, the Mayor’s review team proposed a raft of 26 other taxes and fees to be placed on all individuals regardless of income. They include a tax on drivers (congestion tax), restaurant meals, bottled water, garbage pickup, etc.
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Needless to say, this is not helping CTU’s push for a bailout from Springfield.
He forgot that he won 17% to 16% because only a third of the city voted. There was no mandate.”
Johnson, who does not call himself a democratic socialist but believes in many of the same principles as Mamdani, was swept into office by a coalition underpinned by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union and the city’s Black and brown voters. He vowed to unite fractured coalitions and lift up the most vulnerable. He represented change, and his strong roots in the community as an activist, a parent and a resident of a neighborhood that struggles with crime gave hope around new efforts toward equality across a city long deeply segregated by race and income.
Frank is right: Chicago’s debt is bad. Additionally, Chicago can’t seem to control its expenses either. From 2020 to 2025 the city budget ballooned 50%, climbing from $11.6 billion to $17.3 billion, while NYC’s and LA’s budgets only grew by about 29%. @FrankCalabrese
Citadel’s workforce once numbered 1,100 in downtown Chicago, most of whom were compensated well above the $200,000 threshold Mayor Johnson now wants to tax. In a few short years, Citadel’s Chicago headcount now is at just 250, we understand.
Once company bosses make up their minds that the “privilege of doing business” in a certain place is no longer worth the expense and headache, it doesn’t take long for them to act.
There are 2 paths to dealing with pension liabilities: political courage or kick the can. Here, Pritzker is courting organized labor for his expected prez run in ’28 and will let the city of Chicago and future governors deal with the consequences of this fiscal malfeasance.
The Illinois Constitution locks in those promises for eternity. Pritzker won’t be around to face the consequences. But a generation of working Chicagoans will be. We are stuck with the tab — whether in cuts to services or higher taxes.
Going to Illinois to protest gerrymandering is like going to Wisconsin to protest cheese.
And to think that Gov Pritzker has presidential ambitions.
Pritzker, who once campaigned promising to support efforts to take the mapping pen out of politicians’ hands, eventually supported the maps produced by his fellow democrats.
Imagine the campaign against that reform, so recently touted as the right thing to do in California: We’re doing it right, but if Texas is doing it wrong, we’ve got to seize the power to do it wrong like the way we did in the bad old days.
Stephen Colbert put Illinois governor JB Pritzker on the hot seat by making fun of Illinois’s outrageously gerrymandered congressional map.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Illinois has created a meager 15,500 net new jobs since the governor took office in January of 2019. It’s the nation’s 4th-worst performance among the 50 states. Contrast Illinois’ performance to growth in Georgia, which has added more than 360,000 net new jobs. Or Arizona, with more than 338,000 new jobs. Or the biggest job creators, Florida and Texas, with 1.1 million and 1.5 million net new jobs, respectively.
Up until Friday, I thought growth plus fiscal discipline might have been enough to rebuild Chicago’s finances. Now I’m honestly not sure if the city has any chance of turning a corner without changes to the state constitution and/or bankruptcy.
Just two weeks before school starts, @ChiPubSchool blindsided 1,200 custodians with layoffs, leaving custodians without a job, income, or healthcare and leaving our students with dirty and unsafe schools.
In response, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called Tarver a deadbeat dad, continuing her habit of personally insulting her political opponents. But every word of Tarver’s speech is correct. A case in point: On the pension sweetener bill, Johnson and his Springfield lobbying team were completely missing in action.
