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Last week, President Joe Biden announced the federal government
would use nearly $36 billion to stabilize the Teamsters union
pension plans nationwide. The Teamsters union represents a
variety of professions in public and private sectors. There are
about 20 chapters in Illinois alone.
The Teamsters union has a total of 350,000 participants in
nearly every state in the country with a large portion
represented in the Midwest. The most Teamsters are in Michigan
and Ohio with about 40,000 participants each. Missouri has about
28,000. Illinois has 25,000. About 22,000 members are in
Wisconsin, according to figures provided by the White House.
According to Bryce Hill of the Illinois Policy Institute, the
financial impact on taxpayers would be light this time around,
but it could lead to more significant bailouts down the road,
which taxpayers will have to fund.
"Per taxpayer basis, $36 billion spread across the entire United
States tax base seems like a very little amount, and it would be
in this one instance," Hill said. "The bigger concern is the
precedent it sets, which could have massive tax implications if
we start bailing out public service pensions or doing this more
frequently in the private sector."
Illinois currently has its state government retiree unfunded
pension liability at around $140 billion. However, some private
investor services project the debt to be over $310 billion.
"We have $140 billion in pension liabilities across our
statewide systems," Hill said. "That is up $10 billion compared
to last year, due mainly to missing investment targets."
Hill said the state is relying on federal tax dollars to fix its
own issues.
"I think this is a larger indication of what state and local
governments have been hoping for in Illinois, in trying to get a
federal payout for what is clearly a broken pension system,"
Hill said.
Illinois has among the most unfunded public pension liabilities
in the nation.
Andrew Hensel has years of experience as a
reporter and pre-game host for the Joliet Slammers, and as a
producer for the Windy City Bulls. A graduate of Iowa Wesleyan
University and Illinois Media School, Andrew lives in the south
suburbs of Chicago.
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