Illinois Effort to Fix Ailing Local Pensions Faces Legal Hurdle
- State law mandates merging of assets for 650 funds by mid 2022
- No police funds have shifted assets amid pending court ruling
This article is for subscribers only.
A court ruling as soon as this month will help determine the fate of one of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s key plans to ease the massive shortfall in local pension funds across the state.
A 2019 law championed by Pritzker would merge about 650 local police and firefighter pensions with assets topping $16 billion into two funds to cut costs and improve returns. Fixing the underfunded plans, which weigh on budgets and credit ratings of many communities statewide, is critical for Illinois’s economic rebound.