Last year the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously declared unconstitutional the pension reform law passed in 2013 by the Democratic dominated legislature and signed by former Governor Quinn. Many believe that undue generosity at the bargaining table and severe underfunding in past years have created an overwhelming pension burden that cannot realistically be met. What are the facts and what are the options?
This month’s Chicago QWAFAFEW meeting, sponsored jointly with the IIT Stuart School of Business, addresses the magnitude of the Illinois public pension actuarial funding burden, the fiscal capability to service it, and the prudential management of pension funds in the current environment.
The first panelist will be Craig McCrohon, Chairman of the Investment Committee and member of the Executive Committee of the Illinois State Universities Retirement System and partner at Burke, Warren MacKay and Serritella. Craig will address the economic and fiscal context of the pension crisis, the political clout of the multiple stakeholders, and the practical implications for pension and fund managers.
The second panelist will be Professor Richard Dye of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Richard is Co-Director of the Fiscal Futures Project at UIC’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He will set the pension crisis in a fiscal contest, reviewing a history of severe underfunding and the political, constitutional and fiscal constraints on action. Richard will provide an overview of the IGPA Fiscal Futures Model and use it in evaluating the fiscal implications of alternative policy choices.