Illinois Pension Shortfall Surpassed $500 Billion, Average Debt Burden Now $110,000 Per Household

Illinois Pension Shortfall Surpasses $500 Billion, Average Debt Burden Now $110,000 Per Household - Paine.TV

Illinois ranks only barely behind California in pension irresponsibility. The state has 30% of the nation's pension bonds outstanding. Illinois holds $21.6 billion of the nation’s $72 billion pension obligation bond debt.

American cities and states have issued $72 billion of pension bonds. Here's what that means - MarketWatch

Pension obligation bonds place taxpayer money at risk.

Illinois’ retirement systems hold $144 billion in debt, according to official state reporting based on cooked books creative accounting. But it is more like $500 billion in total debt .

Politicians created the pension crisis by enhancing pension benefits far beyond what is affordable and beyond what a typical private sector worker can hope to receive. The state worker only contributes 5%. This is unheard of in the real world. My employer contributed 25% of every dollar I contributed. That to me was a great rate of return. It meant that even if I only put the retirement money into a guaranteed return cash account, I was still going to get at least a 25% return.

As a result, Illinois already spends the largest share of their revenue on pensions of all 50 states; nearly double the national average.