Chicago officials slam firefighter pension plan they say will cost $3 billion
Asher Notheis
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Chicago taxpayers could end up feeling the burn of having to pay for a pair of pension plans that will cost $3 billion if passed by the legislature.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett warned about the expensive price tag on the same day Lightfoot released a “mid-year” budget forecast claiming her administration is leaving Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson with a budget shortfall of $85 million. Bennett, meanwhile, called the companion bills “among the largest pension sweeteners in the history of Illinois,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
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“We don’t need a bunch of unfunded mandates for pensions,” Lightfoot said.
In one of the bills, the benefits for Chicago firefighters hired after Jan. 1, 2011, would be increased, making the annual cost of living adjustment for those hired in 2011 and onward equal to the full annual increase in the consumer price index. The second bill, meanwhile, would change the final average salary used in calculating a Chicago firefighter’s pension.
The bills would cost Chicago taxpayers roughly $3 billion through 2055, when a Chicago Firefighters Pension Fund is required to meet a funding ratio of 90%.
The two bills are co-sponsored by state Sen. Robert Martwick (D) and state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas (D), the latter of whom will serve as Johnson’s deputy chief of staff. Both bills appear to be set to head to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk soon.
The Civic Federation, a non-partisan government research organization, has warned the two bills would “jeopardize the hard-won financial stability attained over the last several years” by both the state and city, and that the bills “could potentially result in the reversal of recent bond rating upgrades for both governments,” according to a statement from the organization.
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“For the city of Chicago and other local governments, this could lead to large property tax increases, further burdening homeowners and businesses as Illinois enters into a recession,” the organization’s statement read.
Lightfoot’s warning on the two bills comes a little more than a week before she will leave the office of mayor after losing reelection in February. Johnson’s inauguration is scheduled for May 15, according to ABC7.