Peoria Standard

State Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) is warning lawmakers in Springfield that allowing the ongoing pension crisis to fester only means more trouble for the long-struggling state.

“I’m from the Peoria area and this is a problem not just in Peoria but across our state,” Stoller said during a recent news conference. "Republicans and Democrats alike care about the infrastructure in our cities. Republicans and Democrats care about our health care, our education. We care about taking care of those most vulnerable in our cities. We care about economic growth and creating jobs and of course we care about public safety, but these things are at risk if we fail to address our pension crisis.”

As it is, a new Wirepoints analysis delving into the negative impact of local pension costs now assigns a grade of F to 102 of the state’s 175 largest cities, excluding Chicago, compared to just seven in 2003.

With Chicago being restricted from the analysis, the government watchdog added “our analysis was based on ten equally-weighted metrics, ranging from the funded ratio of each local pension system, to the pension debt each household is on the hook for, to the share of city budgets consumed by pension costs.”

Wirepoints added it derived data from the Illinois Department of Insurance, the Illinois Comptroller and the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The results of our analysis confirms what Illinoisans already know: the local pension crisis is wreaking havoc on taxpayers, core city services, and government-worker retirement security,” Wirepoints said.

Nearly over the last two decades, the city’s pension shortfall has ballooned to $350 million from just $98 million, leaving residents now on the hook for 3.5 times more in such debt individually. With Peoria one of the cities hit with an F grade as recently as in 2019, Stoller sees just one way forward.

“I'm calling on legislators from both sides of the aisle to come together and work together on a solution because I will tell you one thing that is not the solution, the solution is not putting our head in the sand, ignoring the problem and just hoping it goes away,” he said.