A new day in Illinois’ fiscal future may be on the horizon. Responsible stewardship of the state’s budget over the past few years and the elimination of the state’s unpaid bill backlog have put Illinois in its best fiscal position in years. And now, credible proposals to address Illinois’ pensions, coming from across the state’s political landscape, are under discussion in Springfield.

We cannot overstate the importance of enacting legislation to address the state’s legacy pension obligations. If we do it right, we can strengthen our fiscal stability, enhance our economic competitiveness and save money that can be used to fund critical state priorities such as education and infrastructure.

As our three organizations — the Better Government Association, the Civic Committee and the Civic Federation — have noted time and again, pensions remain a significant obstacle to Illinois’ fiscal and economic health. The five state pension systems have a combined unfunded liability of $141 billion, while local pension funds add another $70 billion in unfunded liabilities to the taxpayers’ tab. 

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