May 20, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest
Columnist

There is no way to sugarcoat the bitter pill that Illinois taxpayers will have to swallow this summer if we are to put the state onto a path of long-term fiscal stability and predictability, characteristics that are critical to persuading business to locate and expand here.
As you have read, the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that policymakers cannot wiggle out of responsibilities to meet state pension obligations that are underfunded to the tune of $100+ billion.
Illinois has started to fill that pension hole by appropriating $8 billion a year for that purpose, which is about $7 billion more than would be the annual cost if the state had a fully-funded pension system (on a $32 billion general funds budget).     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.