Pritzker to meet with Lightfoot amid report she’ll float state pension takeover

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will meet with Gov. J.B. Pritzker this weekend amid a report she will suggest a state takeover of Chicago’s pension funds.

Earlier this week, Pritzker invited Lightfoot to sit down with him at the Thompson Center. That meeting will happen either Saturday or Sunday, according to the governor’s office, which declined to say exactly when it will take place.

The meeting will come on the heels of a report Friday by Crain’s Chicago Business that Lightfoot will float the idea of combining Chicago’s pension funds with those of municipalities across the state.

The report states Chicago would be open to foregoing revenue it currently receives from the state if the state took over pension responsibilities, currently underfunded by about $28 billion.

Asked about the report Friday, Pritzker was noncommittal and said pension funding is a concern across the state, not just in Chicago.

“I’m going to work with mayors across the state to see what we can do to help them alleviate the challenge that they’ve got,” Pritzker said. “But, you know, my No. 1 concern is to make sure that we’re helping everybody across the state. I’ve said from the beginning of the campaign that I ran that we’re one Illinois. We’ve got to act like we’re one Illinois. We’re standing up for every city and every county, all 102 counties. I’m going to continue to do that.”

The governor’s office declined to comment further. The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Speaking at the Civic Federation last week, Lightfoot said Chicago will need assistance during the General Assembly’s fall veto session. But the mayor didn’t say whether the help she sought would include merging city employee pension funds, a longer road to 90% funding or asking lawmakers to empower the city to broaden its sales-tax umbrella to include professional services.

Chicago pension fund contributions will rise by $1 billion by 2023 as the ramp to actuarial funding ends and the road to 90% funding begins.

The corporate fund has budget gaps of $251.7 million next year and $362.2 million in 2021.

Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout, Fran Spielman