Report documents state pension shortfalls dating back to WWI

SPRINGFIELD-Illinois’ pension problems that led to a sweeping overhaul package now being challenged by public-sector unions in the state’s courts is hardly a new problem.

But the idea that the practice of shorting Illinois’ pension systems dates back nearly 100 years is a new finding included in one of the most comprehensive historical looks at what led up to the state’s $100 billion pension crisis.

Eric Madiar, chief legal counsel to Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, has published a report on the subject for the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and The University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment that shows pension underfunding was a problem as far back as 1917.

“For public officials and the general public, Illinois’ underfunded state and municipal pension systems are a well-known problem and hardly a surprise,” Madiar wrote. “What is surprising, however, is how long the lack of proper funding has been the primary cause of that problem.”

A legislative report Madiar unearthed from 1917 characterized the health of underfunded state public-pension systems then as “one of insolvency” and “moving toward crisis.”

Click here to read the entire 43-page report that outlines a century of state pension problems.