Public pensions in Illinois

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Illinois information (2016)

Total contributions: $13,902,184,000

Employee contributions: $2,771,651,000

Government contributions: $11,130,532,000

Total payments: $18,658,398,000

Total cash and investment holdings: $155,817,713,000

Number of state and local pension systems: 660

Active membership: 972,667

Inactive membership: 375,160

Key terms

Actuarial value of assets (AVA)

Unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL)

Annual required contribution (ARC)

Discount rate • Funded ratio

Rate of return • Active member

Inactive member • OPEB

Hover over the above terms for definitions.

Note: This page utilizes information from a variety of sources. The information presented on this page reflects the most recent data available as of August 2017.

Illinois public pensions are the state mechanism by which state and many local government employees in Illinois receive retirement benefits.

According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 660 public pension systems in Illinois as of 2016. Of these, six were state-level programs while the remaining 654 were administered at the local level. As of fiscal year 2016, membership in Illinois' various pension systems totaled 972,667. Of these, 597,507 were active members.

HIGHLIGHTS

In fiscal year 2016, total contributions of $13.9 billion were made to Illinois' state and local pension systems. Of this amount, $2.8 billion came from employees.

In fiscal year 2016, Illinois' state and local pension systems made payments totaling $18.6 billion.

As of fiscal year 2016, Illinois' state and local pension systems held $155.8 billion in total cash and investment holdings.

See the sections below for specific information on pension systems in Illinois:

1. General information: This section outlines the different types of pensions systems available in the state, as well as membership information.
2. Contributions: This section details the contributions made to state-level pension systems, and the source of the contributions.
3. Payments: This sections details the payments made by the pensions systems, and details what kinds of payments were made.
4. Cash and investment holdings: This section provides information about the total amount of cash and investments the state's pension systems have, and what kinds of investments they have made.
5. Pension health: This section outlines the findings of two reports regarding pension health, including how much liabilities the state pension systems have and how funded they are.

General information

See also: Pension data, U.S. Census

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Illinois had six state pension plans as of 2016:

1. Illinois State Employees Retirement System
2. Illinois General Assembly Retirement System
3. Illinois Judges Retirement System
4. Illinois Teachers Retirement System
5. Illinois University Retirement System
6. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

In addition to the aforementioned state-level pension systems, there were 654 locally administered pension systems in Illinois.

The table below provides general pension system information for Illinois and surrounding states.

General pension system information, 2016
State	Systems		Total members	Active members		Inactive members
	State	Local		Members	Percent of total	Members	Percent of total
Illinois	6	654	972,667	597,507	61.43	375,160	38.57
Indiana	9	239	321,915	219,157	68.08	102,757	31.92
Missouri	12	78	392,449	291,051	74.16	101,399	25.84
Wisconsin	1	3	443,785	273,015	61.52	170,770	38.48
Source: United States Census Bureau, "State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Pension Systems - All Data by State and Level of Government: 2016"

Contributions

See also: Pension contribution and payment data, U.S. Census

Pension contributions are the funds paid into pension systems. These contributions come from the employer (in the case of public pensions, the government) and employees. Investment earnings are the main source of increases in the fund and are listed separately in the rightmost column in the below table.

In fiscal year 2016, total contributions of $13.9 billion were made to Illinois' state and local pension systems. Of this amount, $2.8 billion came from employees. The remainder came from state and local governments. The table below provides information about pension contributions in Illinois and surrounding states in fiscal year 2016. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).

Pension contributions, fiscal year 2016 (dollars in thousands)
State	Total contributions from employees and employers	Employee contributions		Government contributions		Earnings on investments
		Contributions	Percentage of total	Contributions	Percentage of total
Illinois	$13,902,184	$2,771,651	19.94%	$11,130,532	80.06%	$1,531,618
Indiana	$2,303,721	$339,243	14.73%	$1,964,478	85.27%	$501,367
Missouri	$3,472,589	$988,265	28.46%	$2,484,324	71.54%	$1,177,184
Wisconsin	$2,075,028	$986,585	47.55%	$1,088,443	52.45%	-$239,932
Source: United States Census Bureau, "State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Pension Systems - All Data by State and Level of Government: 2016"

Payments

See also: Pension contribution and payment data, U.S. Census

Payments are the amounts paid to pension recipients by their pension plans. Pension payments include benefits and withdrawals. Benefits are the regular payments made by a pension plan to the plan's recipients. Pension beneficiaries may also withdraw funds if they leave the system before they receive regular benefits.

In fiscal year 2016, Illinois' state and local pension systems made payments totaling $18.6 billion. The table below provides pension payment information for Illinois and surrounding states in fiscal year 2016. The columns labeled "Benefits," "Withdrawals," and "Other" are subsets of total payments. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).

Pension payments, fiscal year 2016 (dollars in thousands)
State	Total payments	Benefits	Withdrawals	Other
Illinois	$18,658,398	$17,598,347	$329,236	$730,845
Indiana	$2,822,671	$2,524,520	$78,958	$219,193
Missouri	$5,588,421	$4,859,785	$118,364	$610,269
Wisconsin	$5,796,298	$5,324,949	$43,829	$427,520
Source: United States Census Bureau, "State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Pension Systems - All Data by State and Level of Government: 2016"

Other post-employment benefits

See also: Other post-employment benefits, data

In addition to standard pension payments, some plans may offer pensioners additional benefits. These benefits, sometimes referred to as other post-employment benefits, or OPEBs, consist of health insurance, life insurance, or other benefits that the pensioner may have received while employed. The cost of these benefits can prove complicated for actuaries to calculate because of the changes in fields like medicine, which can results in large changes in spending year to year. This, coupled with the normal challenges in calculating and meeting pension requirements, can result in funding shortages for pension plans.

According to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, unfunded liabilities totaled nearly $585 billion throughout the country for OPEBs. Illinois was reported to have about $33.1 billion in unfunded liabilities for OPEBs. This was equal to about 1.7 percent of total state expenditures.

The chart below displays the unfunded liabilities for Illinois and its surrounding states. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000,000. For instance, $300 translates to $300,000,000.

Unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities for other post-employment benefits, fiscal year 2015 (dollars in millions)
State	Unfunded liabilities	Percent of state expenditure
Illinois	$33,051	1.7%
Indiana	$331	0.2%
Missouri	$2,732	0.6%
Wisconsin	$893	0.1%
Source: National Association of State Retirement Administrators, "Retiree Health Care Benefits for State Employees in Fiscal Year 2015," accessed August 20, 2017.

Cash and investment holdings

See also: Pension data, U.S. Census

Investments are a crucial part of the pension process. The goal is that, by investing pension contributions, the pensioner will receive more money when he or she retires than he or she and the employer were able to contribute. These investments are made in cash, short-term investments, securities like equities and bonds, or other assets. Cash investments are usually low-risk, short-term investments that have a lower rate of return than other types of investments. Other short-term investments are riskier than cash investments, but have the potential for greater returns. Securities can refer to stocks, bonds, or other types of financial certificates that hold some sort of financial value. As the values of these securities change, they can be traded to make a profit. While there are other applications of securities investments, this represents one of the most common practices.

As of fiscal year 2016, Illinois' state and local pension systems held $155.8 billion in total cash and investment holdings. The table below summarizes pension system cash and investment holdings for Illinois and surrounding states. The columns labeled "Total cash and short-term investments," "Total securities," and "Total other investments" are subsets of the grand total. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).

Total cash and investment holdings, fiscal year 2016 (dollars in thousands)
State	Grand total	Total cash and short-term investments	Total securities	Total other investments
Illinois	$155,817,713	$6,220,160	$128,350,389	$21,247,164
Indiana	$31,467,696	$1,926,267	$20,192,963	$9,348,466
Missouri	$71,224,105	$4,181,085	$54,889,358	$12,153,661
Wisconsin	$98,152,527	$3,151,259	$91,786,009	$3,215,259
Source: United States Census Bureau, "State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Pension Systems - All Data by State and Level of Government: 2016"

Pension health

See also: Pension health in Illinois

Pension health is a term used to describe the fiscal condition of a pension system. It can be difficult to gauge pension health in each state; studies use a variety of calculations to determine a pension system's average liabilities, unfunded liabilities, funded ratio, and other metrics. The information on this page comes from two reports by two separate organizations: the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Hoover Institution.

HIGHLIGHTS

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, the funded ratio for Illinois' public pension system was 40 percent in fiscal year 2015.

According to the Hoover Institution, Illinois had unfunded liabilities totaling $510,134,923.

Recent legislation

The following is a list of recent pension policy bills that have been introduced in or passed by the Illinois state legislature. To learn more about each of these bills, click the bill title. This information is provided by BillTrack50 and LegiScan.

'Note: Due to the nature of the sorting process used to generate this list, some results may not be relevant to the topic. If no bills are displayed below, then no legislation pertaining to this topic has been introduced in the legislature recently.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Illinois + public + pensions"

Illinois public pensions news feed

See also

• Public policy in Illinois
• Public pensions in the United States
• Historical Illinois pension information
• Illinois state budget and finances
• Tax policy in Illinois
• Pension statistics
• Pension health in Illinois
• Public pensions

External links

• United States Census Bureau, Annual Survey of Public Pensions

Footnotes

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