Time to get a handle on state pensions

If state lawmakers wanted to assure a good turnout from the public for a roundtable discussion of the great issues of the day, they could choose from any number of topic areas.

Discussions of school funding would certainly generate interest. Everyone wants to assure children get the best education in the classroom and for the state to provide the necessary money for this to happen.

Certainly giving members of the public an opportunity to give their opinions on pay raises for the governor and legislators would have long lines of people waiting at the door to the meeting area.

A hearing on growing traffic congestion and the horrible condition of our roads might draw a crowd.

But invite the public to a discussion on the state's pension problems, and it's bound to draw more yawns than attendees. It's just not the kind of topic that stirs public interest.

Unless, of course, you are among the state employees and teachers who are counting on their state pensions being there when they retire. They have to be a bit uneasy with an Associated Press report published in the Sunday Daily Herald showing that the state's pension debt will exceed $44 billion this summer.

But the public in general should also be alarmed that the state of Illinois has the nation's worst pension problem, according to that same AP report.

As long as that debt exists and continues to grow, it will mean there will be that much less money for things high on the list of priorities in the public's mind. Such as education and fixing up the roads.

Lack of resolute action in solving this pension problem cannot be solely blamed on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration or state lawmakers now in Springfield. Since the 1970s the state has been trying to catch up on an underfunded pension system, with some successes and more setbacks. As it stands, the five retirement funds for state employees not only have a multi-billion dollar debt, but are also only 63 percent funded.

The state cannot continue to forgo aggressively paying down the pension debt. At the minimum, the governor and legislators must, in this legislative session, find a compromise toward making substantial progress in meeting the state's pension obligations.

But the state must also look beyond exercising the funding discipline that is requisite to stopping the pension debt from growing by $3.6 billion in interest alone each year.

There must also be pension reforms to bring about long-term affordability. For example, look at moving new public employees from defined-benefit plans the state can no longer afford to defined-contribution plans, just like the 401(k) plans that are common in the private sector.

Letting some future generation worry about the grave consequences of unfunded pension liabilities is bound to end badly -- for that generation. It's time to end such reckless deferring of a decades-old problem.