Illinois governor candidates: What's your plan to improve the pension burden on cities?

Eight candidates are running for governor of Illinois. We sent questionnaires to each of the candidates on the ballot, asking them to answer questions about pension obligations, state population loss, escalating costs of healthcare, how to handle a COVID surge and what small businesses need due to the pandemic.

This is the first in a series of five articles revealing their answers to those questions – candidates are listed below alphabetically.

Darren Bailey (R)

We must solve this problem and lower taxes. Working families are struggling and in need of help. I filed to amend the pension protection clause as a way to spark a conversation with workers, not union bosses and the political elites who use state workers as bargaining chips in every election. We must bring workers and those focused on solving problems, saving pensions long-term, and being respectful of promises made to workers and taxpayers to the table and create solutions from the ground up. I support no longer kicking the can down the road and ensuring lawmakers make required payments. We must also move to 401(k) style plans for all new hires and have honest conversations with state workers to gain reasonable adjustments to Cost of Living Allocation and more participation in health insurance. I would also look into supporting more buyout plans that current workers support to help alleviate future debt.

Richard C. Irvin (R)

"As a mayor, I know how important and challenging it is to balance your budget. But that’s exactly what I’ve done every year in Aurora — our state’s second-largest city — keeping our commitments to our first responders, stopping tax hikes, promoting economic growth and cutting wasteful spending to lower taxes. When it comes to local pensions, we need to get all sides together to work towards modernizing benefits to ensure our workforce and public safety employees have a retirement they can depend on."

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Beverly Miles (D)

"How do you make up monies from bad investments and underfunding? On the outside looking in, I am afraid to think about the financial damage that has been done. Within my first 6 months in office, I would conduct a full head-to-toe audit of each agency to determine the financial bleeds. Based on that, then I will hire a financially/pension disciplinary team to absorb those misplaced monies into the pensions without making the taxpayers foot the prior years of mismanagement."

JB Pritzker (D)

"For over 70 years, previous governors and General Assemblies have watched the patchwork of local police and fire pension funds expand into the second largest number of individual systems in the nation. Many attempts have been made to consolidate suburban and downstate funds but none were successful. I brought both sides of the aisle together to achieve what none of our predecessors have been able to do: consolidate the 650 downstate and suburban pension funds to just two, amplifying their $15 billion in investment power and reducing the burden on property taxpayers. Already we’ve seen tens of millions of dollars in higher returns and lower fees as a result. Working together, we have helped hundreds of cities alleviate their spiraling property tax burdens and we’ve shown that Illinois can tackle our most intractable problems. There’s more work to do, but this is among the most important reforms that’s ever been made to alleviate the pension burden on municipalities and their residents."

Gary Rabine (R)

Did not respond to repeated requests to fill out questionnaire.

Paul Schimpf (R)

Did not respond to repeated requests to fill out questionnaire.

Max Solomon (R)

"CPR for Illinois — Constitutional Pension Reform."

Jesse Sullivan (R)

"After decades of corruption and bad decisions, Illinois taxpayers and pensioners are suffering.

"An average family of four in Illinois owes more as a share of those unfunded liabilities ($76,000) than they earn in household income ($63,585). That prevents us from investing more in priorities like education, tax relief, and law enforcement.

"We need a solution that protects pensioners and taxpayers alike. We need an amendment to the state constitution that protects all benefits already earned, but allows for changes to future benefit growth. Real reform requires a hybrid defined-benefit and defined-contribution pension system as an alternative for new workers that looks more like a private-sector style 401(k). And we don’t need to look far to find what works: More than 20,000 employees in our state university system have already opted into a 401(k)-style retirement plan."