Something to crow about

Add comment April 17th, 2008

The pension system for city workers in Illinois announced this week that it is 100 percent funded at the end of 2007, on a market value basis.

The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is the public pension that provides death, disability and retirement benefits to employees who work for cities, villages, libraries, parks, counties and school districts. It has about $24 billion in assets and earned about 8.5 percent last year, according to the IMRF.

There’s a reason why the IMRF wants to toot its own horn about its ability to meet its pension liabilities. In the world of Illinois’ government-funded pensions, IMRF is the exception. It’s separate from the five pension funds controlled by the state legislature. Those retirement systems for teachers, university workers, judges, legislators and other state employees have been shortchanged for years to keep the state budget afloat.

In 2005, lawmakers agreed to put off $4 billion in payments to those funds through 2010, putting them even further in the hole. Last year, the state auditor reported that those state pensions had only about 60 percent of the money needed to pay their expected long-term liabilities.

The moral of the story? You don’t want lawmakers controlling your retirement savings.