Governor must sign pension bill

One of the biggest fiscal crises facing both the state and municipal governments is the rapidly growing cost of funding pension benefits for public safety employees.

While the state's pension problems have been well documented, the difficulties faced in funding the pensions of the police officers and firefighters by our cities and towns has not received as much attention but is every bit as big an issue for taxpayers and local government.

Municipalities throughout the state are facing an impending crisis in meeting their obligations to fund the retirement of these public safety employees.

Due to a number of factors, including pension benefit increases granted by our state government, almost all public safety pension funds have seen their unfunded pension liabilities dramatically increase over the past eight years.

During the 2008 legislative session, our membership worked with legislative leaders to implement the first step in this process.

House Bill 5088 was drafted by the Illinois Municipal League to introduce reforms for the downstate and suburban police and firefighter pension funds.

These much-needed reforms include:

1. State publication of regular and comprehensive studies of the fiscal health of the police and fire pension funds.

2. More accurate state-generated cost-impact predictions on all future police and fire pension legislation.

3. Annual publication and transparency requirements informing taxpayers about the fiscal status of their local police and fire pension funds.

4. More frequent state audits of each municipal police and firefighter pension fund.

House Bill 5088 passed both chambers of the General Assembly with unanimous support.

Unfortunately, Gov. Blagojevich has yet to take any action on this legislation.

There is a strong possibility that the governor may veto this legislation due to the requirement that the state audit these pension funds on a regular basis.

We talk about the need to solve many of the fiscal crises that plague our state and local government.

The governor should recognize the importance of maintaining the fiscal integrity of these pension funds and sign House Bill 5088. Taxpayers can ill afford for this bill not to be enacted.

Mark L. Fowler

Executive Director

Northwest Municipal

Conference

Des Plaines