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Illinois' pension crisis is crippling our state and it's affecting everyone, including you.

What is the problem?

Illinois' pension plans for state workers and teachers are facing a crisis - they are seriously underfunded and have accumulated massive debts.

What caused this crisis?

Illinois' hard-working teachers and state employees have paid into their pensions – they didn’t cause the crisis. Illinois’ citizens have paid their taxes, taxes that were supposed to support these pensions – they didn’t cause the crisis either.

Business-as-usual politics caused the problem. That’s why we’ve never acknowledged the real cost of state pensions. That’s why the pension funds haven’t been adequately funded each year. That’s why we’re in this mess.

How serious is it?

It's very serious. Illinois has more than $167 billion dollars in retirement-related debt.

It's crowding out money for education, medical care for the elderly and disabled, and social services. It's consuming more and more of our tax dollars. And it could ultimately leave hundreds of thousands of state workers without the pensions they are counting on.

Everyone in Illinois is affected.

One way or another, we'll all pay.
The solution is Pension Reform.
It may not be easy, but our future depends on it.
It will make public employee pensions more secure, and save our schools and social services from drastic cuts.

Pension Reform will help put our state back on a sound financial track.

The state’s continued fiscal deterioration and the projected growth of the unfunded pension liabilities will have a significant impact on the reforms that will be necessary to put Illinois back on the path to fiscal stability. This is going to be hard, and all stakeholders are going to have to make sacrifices. But we have to do it – we can’t afford not to.