Macon Reporter

Illinois state Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) reasons that he doesn’t need any new report to tell him about something he’s been preaching about since arriving on the scene in Springfield.

“We’ve been talking about this for the last few years,” Halbrook told the Macon Reporter of a new Moody’s Investor Services report that finds the state’s unfunded public pension liability has now spiraled to around $250 billion overall, or in the neighborhood of $18,000 per resident, easily giving the state the highest such estimated debt in the country.

Researchers found Illinois’ public pension debt load even tops that of California, which is home to more than 26 million more residents and a much larger state economy.

“The per-person number is staggering and until Illinois gets a grip on this, nothing is going to get any better,” Halbrook said. “It continues to get worse because nothing’s changed to make it better. We need to preserve what retirees and employees have earned but all new employees need to go into a 401(k)-style plan.”

Meanwhile, more and more critics of the current system are warning that the state has little wiggle room when it comes to having the ability to afford its mounting pension contribution requirements, particularly should an economic slowdown occur.

“This is no secret and people are not seeing any change to make it better,” Halbrook said. “What I see is this exodus that is real and people are going to where they don’t have to bare that burden because they know until the General Assembly starts to address this problem it’s not going to get any better. I think we see it as people leaving the state of Illinois.”