State pension costs are not the only thing tying up the budgets

Posted on May 5, 2021

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – State pension costs are not the only thing tying up the budgets. It’s also local pension costs.

“Nobody’s talking pensions. Nobody cares,” said Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, at a statehouse news conference Wednesday. “I think the difficult part is going to be with the federal money coming in, it’s going to hide the problem, it’s going to mask the problem, for a year and a half.

“And when that money’s gone we are going to be on a bigger cliff.”

Republicans from both the Illinois House and Senate joined Dabrowski at the event, which also bemoaned the state’s population loss and the tops-in-the-nation number of local governmental units in Illinois.

Which local officials will volunteer to give up their positions in the name of consolidation? State Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) said voters approved a merger of three cities in his district near St. Louis.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].

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