Budget deadline closes in as pension issue remains

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The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund presented Galesburg City Council with a shadowbox last night, for being one of the five original units of government in the state to join the fund in 1941.

Ward 7 Alderman Jeremy Karlin jokingly asked IMRF Executive Director Louis Kosiba if Galesburg could become one of the first five city’s to join their police and fire pensions into the fund. 

Unfortunately, the issue that is the city’s police and fire pension costs is no laughing matter. 

In past meetings, City Manager Todd Thompson has said that while city employee investments are covered by more than 60 percent through IMRF, police and fire pensions, which run through state government, fall around 30 percent and the city’s contribution becomes that much higher. 

As Galesburg is now only two to three months away from adopting an FY17 budget, they remain nearly $2 million in the hole–a problem aldermen and Mayor John Pritchard blame on Springfield’s mandates.

“About $1.6 million of that deficit is police and fire pension costs,” Pritchard says. “If we could convince the state legislature to reform the way the funds are invested, it would save Galesburg probably close to $2 million annually.”

Reform calls would pool the more than 600 down state pension funds to receive a sizable return, but for now, those coffers remain stagnant. 

City Council has plans to adopt a budget by late November or December. 

Meanwhile, the state is expected to reach $111 billion in unfunded liabilities by the start of the new year. As for an adoptable solution locally and state wide? That remains unclear.

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