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 You can tell a lot about government’s priorities by looking at
how it spends tax revenues.
Consider education funding, which most agree is a fundamental government
service. Since fiscal year 2000, after adjusting for inflation, state spending
on education has grown by 21%.
State spending on everything from child protection, state police, college aid
for low-income students and more has fallen by nearly one-third during that
time.
State spending on pensions for government workers, meanwhile, grew by a whopping
501% – on top of a 127% increase in spending on health care costs for state
workers.
Total state spending has increased by 15%, predominately driven
by pensions and health care for government workers. Because the state is
prioritizing pensions, everything else – social services and education included
– takes a backseat.
Local government pension costs are no less burdensome. Fast-growing local
pension costs are the primary driver of Illinois homeowners’ sky-high property
taxes.
During veto session, state lawmakers sought to address the state’s pension
crisis by sending a bill to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk that would consolidate
more than 640 suburban and downstate public safety pension funds.
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As previously noted by the Illinois Policy
Institute, consolidation of downstate police and fire pension funds
made sense by itself, though it targets just a small fraction of the
problem and falls far short of fully solving it. The problem with
the bill that passed is that lawmakers didn’t run the numbers before
voting in favor of the measure. Before adjourning for the end of
veto session last week, lawmakers added to the consolidation bill
pension benefit enhancements for employees hired after 2011 –
without estimating the cost. While the governor’s task force
publicly stated the enhancements would cost $14 million to $19
million more per year, this number was not backed up by any type of
public data or methodology to justify it.
But beyond this lack of due diligence, the
governor’s pension consolidation bill doesn’t touch Illinois’ true
pension problem: the five state-run systems and their massive $137
billion shortfall.
The only real answer to Illinois’ pension crisis is
a constitutional amendment that protects earned benefits but allows
for changes to future benefit growth. Without such a change,
Illinoisans face a future in which they are asked to pay more to
receive less in services.
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