Hundreds of downstate and suburban pension funds should be consolidated to improve investment returns and ease the burden on local property taxes, a state task force recommended Thursday.
The report from the Illinois Pension Consolidation Feasibility Task Force only made recommendations for 649 local police and fire pension systems scattered around the state. It did not make recommendations that affect the woefully underfunded five state pension systems or those operated by the city of Chicago.
But Gov. JB Pritzker, who formed the task force in February, said the recommendations for the police and fire funds represented “monumental progress” in the state’s effort to get control of spiraling public employee pension costs.
“One of the most critical, long-term fiscal challenges is the need to address unfunded pension liabilities for local governments and the surging property tax burdens that they create,” Pritzker said.