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DOES YOUR MUNICIPALITY HAVE A PENSION PROBLEM?
Public Safety Pension Debt -- An Emerging Public Policy Problem
“Unfortunately, however, the pension systems for all Illinois municipal police and firefighters, even including Chicago, are not financially sound. Even more worrisome, their pensions are becoming less secure with each passing year. Illinois police officers and firefighters, especially the younger ones, ought to be worried about the fiscal health of their pension funds. As the nation learned when New York City went bankrupt in the 1970s, employee pension funds are not exempt from the negative changes that accompany municipal bankruptcy.”
“Illinois Police Officers And Fire Fighters: How Good Are Their Pensions?”
James M. Banovetz and Dawn S. Peters
NIU Center for Governmental Studies
ALERT
Read Terry Savage's column about the impending financial crisis looming over Illinois' 5-State funded pension systems.
*NEW* THE IML HAS PUBLISHED AN ISSUE BRIEF ON THE 2009 PENSION ETHICS REFORM LAW. THE ISSUE BRIEF CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK.
THE IML HAS PUBLISHED A DOCUMENT EXPLAINING THE NEW PUBLIC SAFETY PENSION REFORM LAW. THE DOCUMENT CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK.
The Illinois Municipal League Introduced These Important Pension Reform Bills During the 2009 Spring Legislative Session
HB 958 (Hamos) -- Requires police and firefighter pension boards to provide written notice of meetings 48 hours in advance to the mayor, manager, or village president. The firefighters opposed this pension board meeting disclosure bill and prevented it from getting out of committee.
SB 250 (Lightford) -- Allows municipalities to introduce evidence and have that evidence considered during police and firefighter pension board hearings. The firefighters opposed the bill. As a result, police and firefighter-controlled pension boards will continue to prevent municipal governments from having a right to introduce contrary evidence about pension benefit awards into court proceedings. The pension boards can therefore control what evidence a court can hear.
SB 1625 (Viverito) -- Reduces the impact that "salary spiking" has on final pension payments for police officers and firefighters. The sponsor indicated that the police and fire unions were aggressively opposing this attempt to fix an unfortunate provision within the pension law that allows these public servants to inflate the value of their pensions.
A Resource For Common Action
The IML Public Policy Pension Page is intended to serve as a leading resource to educate municipal officials, state leaders and the residents of Illinois’ cities, villages and towns about the looming challenge to achieve and maintain financial stability within Illinois’ municipal public safety pension funds. Achieving pension fund stability will also insure that scarce municipal budgetary resources are available to meet other important obligations of growing communities with diverse needs. Concerned parties can utilize the site to take action toward: 1) promoting good stewardship of pension fund resources; 2) providing responsible regulatory oversight; 3) protecting against potential abuses; and 4) expanding public involvement and accountability. Working together, Illinoisans can guarantee that the pension promises made to our police officers and firefighters are kept.
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