Illinois Long-Term Pension Gap Expands Again as Salaries Rise

Illinois’s debt owed to its pension funds rose for a second straight year, spurred this time by a recent rise in salaries that will be used to calculate future benefit payments.

The unfunded pension liability across Illinois’s five retirement systems rose 1.8% to $142.3 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June, based on the market value of their assets, according to a report from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability on Tuesday.

The increase this year was due mainly to “larger than expected salary increases in all five systems,” according to the report. The Illinois Teachers’ ...