A continuation of the analysis of the current situation in Illinois by WirePoints:
Fact 7
BUDGET DRIVERS
Hynes ignored the fact that many of the cost drivers that made the impasse so painful had accelerated to crisis levels long before Rauner even took office.
7. Growing worker salaries. State AFSCME worker salaries, thanks to their guaranteed contracts, grew more than 40 percent over the 2005-2015 period. In contrast, private sector worker earnings only grew 11 percent, half the rate of inflation. That growth helped push Illinois state government worker pay to the highest in the nation in 2014.
On top of that the Illinois worker through compulsory tax system must finance the retirement of these state workers through unsustainable pension system at the expense of their own retirement. The mathematical reality is, this system is not sustainable. Rather than propose reform, republican representatives strategy is to protect on segment of potential taxpayers (retirees) in favor of the other, wealth producers. They do this for no other reason than self preservation. IL is not only financially bankrupt but intellectually as well when it comes to the political class.
Hiking the salaries, hikes the pension payout, and thus hikes the state contribution to the pension funds, and thus sooner or later hikes taxpayer taxes and fees.
The pensions were underfunded while these salary hikes took place.
If retirement safety is the main concern, instead of hiking of hiking salaries to this extent, most of the salary hike funding could have gone to the state contribution to the pension funds.
But instead the salaries are hiked, then the state is blamed for not making its full actuarial required pension contribution (the legislatively set contribution is lower than the actuarial required contribution).
The state doesn’t make actuarial required contributions.
It makes legislatively set required contributions which are lower than actuarial contributions.
Not to mention a real actuarial required contribution would be calculated based on 100% funding not 90% funding.
Part of the Illinois Pension Scam.
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Speaking of salaries.
Although presumably these workers are not AFSCME members, is the LLC that JB Pritzker created to privately hike select public salaries, also going to pay the actuarial required (not legislatively required which is lower) employer and state pension contributions?
63 K Illinois Gov F’wits, get over $100 K plus, costing $10 B a year.