Originally Published November 11, 2013 - Northwest Herald
It’s clear that Illinois is heading in the wrong economic direction. We have a 9.2 percent unemployment rate (second highest in the country), $6 billion of unpaid bills that will continue to grow, $100 billion of unfunded pension liabilities, the worst credit ratings in the nation, and a pension crisis.
The only way to start turning Illinois around is to adopt meaningful public employee pension reform soon. We owe to it our hard-working teachers and state workers to save the pension systems.
It’s a crisis because if we don’t act soon, Illinois will continue to be plagued with high unemployment and economic uncertainty. Small businesses will not want to expand and companies will not want to locate in Illinois because they will be concerned about the prospect of higher tax rates to fund future pension obligations. More here.