Macon Reporter

Republican state Rep. Brad Halbrook argues lawmakers in Springfield have no one to blame but themselves for a pension debt problem that has spiraled out of control.

“The pension crisis is a crisis of our own making,” Halbrook told the Macon Reporter. “We had career politicians make promises there was no way the state could ever keep, and because of the pension clause in our constitution, we have in effect painted ourselves into a corner. The actions of the legislature leading up to this point have only served to make the pension problem worse, and when there finally was the political will to enact pension reform, the courts determined those reforms were unconstitutional. So, the legislature created a problem that the courts won’t let it solve without a change in our constitution.”

All told, government watchdog Wirepoints now pegs the state’s retirement debts in the neighborhood of $530 billion, essentially leaving every one of the state’s 4.9 million taxpaying households on the hook for $110,000 to cove shortfalls.

“The only way out of this is to pass a constitutional amendment to give the legislature the authority to fix the problem,” he said. “This is what states like Arizona have done. This is the approach we need here in Illinois.”

As it is, the state continues to pay a heavy price, including seeing its credit rating dissipate to the worst in the country, its property taxes climb to the second-highest in the nation and real home values suffer the nation’s fifth-worst decline. In addition, over the last decade, the state has seen the second-largest population decline, Wirepoints reported.  

Of the $530 billion in debt, $313 billion is owed to the five state-run pension funds, $55 billion to state retiree health insurance and $9 billion to state pension obligation bonds. Data shows another $122 billion is owed to Chicago and Cook County pensions and retiree health, and $32 billion to other government pensions and retiree health.

Halbrook still holds out hope, provided Springfield can finally get its act together.

“There are ways to solve this crisis without raising taxes, but we need the constitutional authority to make it happen,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Democrat majority refuses to start the process to amend the constitution, which is only serving to make the pension crisis even worse.”