First-term Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) is convinced that he knows why the state’s problems always lead back to its long-troubled pension system.
“It’s because the problem is structural and the rising pensions just keep on compounding,” Ugaste told the Kane County Reporter. “It will only continue to get worse until the state takes action to fix our problems.”
A new Moody’s Investor Services report now pegs the state’s overall deficit for unfunded public pension liability at $250 billion, or around about $18,000 state resident, giving Illinois the highest such estimated debt in the country. By comparison, California, which has a population of more than 26 million more people and a much larger local economy, owes somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 billion less in public pensions than does Illinois.
Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva)
“The reluctance to get something done on this is only there on the part of some lawmakers,” Ugaste said. “Others, such as myself, are willing to tackle the problem. To not do so means the state will continue to decline.”
An increasing number of critics of the current system are warning that the state is dangerously hanging by a thread over a cliff as it relates to the question of how much longer it can afford to meet its mounting pension contribution requirements before the system grinds to a halt should the economy take a turn for the worse. Ugaste is already on record with his forecast.
“Something has to be done and until that happens we will not get businesses coming in to grow the economy or improve the tax base because no one wants the uncertainty,” Ugaste previously told the Kane County Reporter. “We need fair and equitable policy to have any chance of attracting new business.”
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