WILFORD: Illinois Looks To Raid Private Retirement Accounts To Solve Its Pension Crisis
11:00 AM 02/23/2019 | Opinion
Andrew Wilford | National Taxpayers' Union Foundation
Illinois has a severe pension crisis. That’s probably an understatement — the state has over $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities alone. Last summer, Moody’s reported that the state made the record books for the largest ever pension debt-to-revenue ratio, with pension debt equaling 601 percent of total government revenue. So what are some in the state proposing to solve the problem? Going after money in private retirement accounts, of course.
Two state policy groups, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Civic Federation, have come out in favor of ending an exclusion in the state’s income tax for pension income and federally taxable Social Security income. Doing so, the organizations argue, would raise $2.5 billion in revenue, equivalent to a 0.5 percent income tax rate hike and a 0.85 percent corporate tax rate increase.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/23/wilford-illinois-pensions/