127,000 draw pensions in Cook County’

India Post News Service

For every retiree taking money out of a public pension fund in Cook County, there is barely one current employee putting money in, a sign of growing demographic pressure on underfunded retirement plans, according to the Debt Disclosure Report issued by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

• There are 135,757 local government employees, compared with 126,528 retirees, a ratio of just 1.07 to 1, according to an analysis of 384 governments in Cook County by the Office of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.
• The City of Chicago reports 35,655 employees and 47,592 retirees.
• Of Cook County’s 547 primary governments, 169 have fewer employees paying into pension funds than retirees receiving payments from the funds – up from 130 in late 2016. This is an ominous trend.
• Increasingly, public pension funds are paying out more money than they bring in through investments, contributions by local governments, and payments by employees – their primary revenue streams.

The dollar figures are staggering

• Total municipal and school debt in Cook County has shot up to $145 billion, an increase of more than 10 percent since late 2016, when it was $131.6 billion.
• Total debt, including pensions, has grown to an average of $106,704 per household in Chicago, and to an average of $36,875 in the suburbs.
• Chicago gave $1 billion to its pension funds in 2018. Cook County gave more than $550 million to its pension fund in 2018.