Illinois Losing to California Shows Pension Penalty
This article is for subscribers only.
Illinois’s biggest debt sale in 11 months showed lawmakers aren’t working quickly enough to make up ground the state lost to California in the eyes of investors.
Buyers awaiting progress on plans to overhaul the worst-funded state pension system demanded about 1.33 percentage points of extra yield above benchmark munis for 10-year tax-exempt debt that Illinois sold yesterday. That’s almost triple what California had to pay last month.