A city in crisis. That’s how one research group describes Rockford because of its pension problems. It gives the city a critical rating, and warns taxpayers aren’t the only ones feeling the impact.
“A lot of attention is being put on Chicago because Chicago is the super dangerous pension system in the state, but they’re pretty much ignoring what’s happening in the municipal level,” said Ted Dabrowski with the Illinois Policy Institute.
What’s happening in Rockford, according to Dabrowski, is the pension system is failing.
“Most taxpayers don’t understand just how bad things are. I’m not sure that city workers understand just how badly funded their pensions are,” he said.
His report show the city’s police and fire pensions have only 60 cents for every dollar promised for their retirement. It also shows taxpayers are paying more than ever.
“Over the last 10 years, taxpayers contribution to that system have almost doubled,” said Dabrowski. “And surprisingly despite all that new money that’s going from taxpayers from the budget into pensions, the pension systems are not doing that much better.”
Dabrowski says the city is also paying more. The cost of that means less money for infrastructure, roads and jobs.
“We’ve had to lay off employees. We’ve been down in terms of the number of police officers, we made reductions in our fire staffing,” said Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey.
Morrissey says state pension reform was a start, but Rockford needs more help.
“Local police funds, local fire pension funds were untouched. Those are the ones that we’re asking the state to address. And if they can address those, we can get a handle on our unfunded liability and be in much stronger fiscal health,” said Morrissey.
But State Senator Dave Syverson says it’s the local government that needs to get a handle on the situation.
“The state could come in and try to force a change on local governments. But that’s really more of a last resort because it’s not our job to come in and force something on a local community and be the bully,” said Syverson.
Mayor Morrissey disagrees.
“The issue is a state government issue, we don’t set the benefits levels,” he said.
Syverson says the state will work with municipalities but state lawmakers can’t do all the heavy lifting.
“What would be a better solution is if …both sides would sit down look at the problem and try to come up with a reasonable solution that both could agree with and then come to the state and say here’s a solution that we have. Can you help pass this?” said Syverson.
We contacted State Senator Steve Stadelman’s office to weigh in on this issue. He did not return our calls.
Click Here for the Illinois Policy Institute’s study.
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