Chicago Daily Observer

Age typically is associated with maturity, with maturity being associated with taking on adult responsibilities like providing for one’s self and one’s family. Yet in his Chicago Daily Observer column, Don Rose demands that as our population ages, our politicians should take the expedient 10–15 year time frame, rather than acting as stewards for lasting financial security. Whatever his reason, it’s clear he doesn’t want to address the underlying actuarial problems of Social Security.

This is the equivalent of US retirees throwing a big party and then flying out of town at the end of the party, leaving friends and family to clean up the mess. Or, really, just the younger friends and family.

If you know anything about mathematics, you know that Social Security is a demographic time bomb. It will begin to run a deficit at some ... Read More...

The City’s accumulated unfunded liability in the police and firefighters’ pension funds has been a thorn in the tax side of Evanston for nearly a year – since the City changed actuaries and the new actuary estimated the liability to be about $140 million, which was about $40 million greater than the former actuary had estimated.

After the former actuary agreed last month that the $140 million number was “within the ball park,” City Council decided to fund this year’s required contribution through property taxes and approved the budget for the present year with a 7-percent increase in the City’s portion of the property tax.

The police and firefighters pension funds are mandated by the state but funded locally. Increases in pension benefits approved by the state legislature in the past decade have increased local pension-funding liabilities at least four times.

At $140 million, Evanston’s accumulated unfunded liability for both ... Read More...

Chicago billionaire and businessman Lester Crown is among the 32 members of a new commission introduced Friday by Mayor Richard M. Daley to find ways to solve the city’s pension shortfalls.

Called the “Commission to Strengthen Chicago’s Pension Funds,” the group of business, labor and city leaders will conduct an analysis of pension funds for Chicago’s fire, police, laborers and municipal employees and make recommendations within 18 months on how to reach and maintain higher funding levels.