Lake County Gazette

Resolving Illinois' still-growing pension debt crisis, which grew over decades, can be resolved, but that won't be easy, a Republican state House representative from Lake County said during a recent interview.

Part of the problem is the complexity of Illinois' pension debt crisis, which has been building for decades, state Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) told the Lake County Gazette.

"It's a multifaceted problem, and we've been kicking the can down the road for some time and not dealing with issue," Bos said. "We've got spending out of control, six-figure pensions, and people getting more than one pension that are all adding to the problem. Republicans have tried to address the issue, but lack of political will on the other side leaves us facing unique challenges that other states don't have to deal with."

With that level of complexity and political will to address the problem being so one-sided, the solution is equally complex, Bos said.

"There's no simple solution," Bos said. "One of things we've got to do is fulfill the promises we've made to workers, but we also have to figure out how to transfer people over to 401[K] systems and we've got to put a max amount on what the system can pay out. If you're making so much, I think you have an obligation to put away for your own future and not leave that responsibility just on the back of the taxpayer."

The direness of the shortfall in the state's pension plans was spelled out in a Wirepoints report issued earlier this month. The report released Nov. 17 found that Chicago and Cook County's pensions' retiree health shortfall were $122 billion. State pension obligation bonds' shortfalls stood at $9 billion. State retiree health insurance shortfalls had hit $55 billion by the time the report was released, and Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for a total of $530 billion in debts.

"While Wirepoints uses Moody's debt estimates as the standard in this report, we also report the state's official numbers for comparison purposes," the report said. "Illinois' official calculations also reached a negative milestone of their own this year: state and local retirement debts crossed the $300 billion mark in 2020. Any way you cut the numbers, retirement debts are reaching record levels in Illinois."

Successful pension reform can't, at this point, happen without real change in Springfield, Bos said.

Is there a way to have a successful pension plan in the future without leaving tax payers holding the bag?

"Not until there are changes in the House, Senate and the Illinois Supreme Court, and we get judges who actually want to look at the law and address things to change these problems," Bos said. "Now, we've got  too many people who feel it's not their problem, or they won't be around when the time comes around where we can't put off addressing these issues in a real way any longer."