The General Assembly Retirement System, or GARS, which offers a defined benefit plan for 294 General Assembly retirees, is nearly out of cash. Only massive taxpayer contributions are keeping the system afloat. Without those contributions, the system will run out of money in less than three years.

Here are the facts on the insolvent GARS system, according to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability:

• The system is broke: The pension fund has just 17 cents in assets for every dollar it should have to meet its future obligations.

• GARS has only $52 million, or 17 percent, of the $303 million it should have invested today to meet its 33-year benefit payouts of $900 million.

• The fund’s assets cover only 2.5 years of benefit payouts: The fund has $52 million in assets, yet its annual benefit payouts to legislators equal $21 million. Those assets cover just 2.5 years’ worth of benefit payouts.

• Taxpayer bailout: To keep the system afloat, state taxpayers must provide an employer match of 95.5 percent in 2014. That match level must be maintained until 2045 so GARS can reach its legally required 90 percent funding level in 2045.

• GARS employee payroll in 2014 will total $14.5 million.

• State taxpayer contributions to GARS will total $13.9 million, or 95.5 percent of GARS payroll.

• GARS bailout far larger than other state systems: The 2014 employer (taxpayer) match for GARS is far higher than the other four state-run systems.

• General Assembly Retirement System employer match: 95.5 percent

• Judges’ Retirement System employer match: 74.1 percent

• State Employees’ Retirement System employer match: 40.3 percent

• State Universities Retirement System employer match: 35.3 percent

• Teachers’ Retirement System employer match: 34.4 percent

In contrast, the typical employer match for a private sector employee with a 401(k) and Social Security? 9.2 percent.

• Taxpayers contribute eight times more to GARS than legislators do: Illinois’ part-time legislators contribute a fixed 11 percent of their salary each year to GARS. They are not required to contribute any additional funds to close any GARS funding shortfalls.

• Legislators’ contribution in 2014 will total just $1.7 million. By comparison, taxpayer contributions will total $13.9 million that same year.

• Between now and 2045, legislator contributions will total $105 million. Taxpayer contributions will total $885 million over that same period.

• The GARS employee-to-retiree ratio is now upside down: GARS now has fewer active employees than retirees. With only 176 active workers contributing to a fund with 294 retirees, more people are taking from the pension fund than contributing to it.

• 24 legislators have recently opted out of GARS, increasing the likelihood of a GARS bankruptcy.

• GARS benefits are far too generous for legislators in part-time jobs: 

• Illinois legislators have the fifth-highest legislator pay in the nation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

• Illinois legislators can receive pensions equal to 85 percent of their final salary after 20 years of service.

• As of June 2012, 12 legislators exceeded 20 years of service. Another 26 members have 15-19 years of service.

• Legislator pensions increase each year by an automatic, compounded 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.

GARS is no longer sustainable. And with more pensioners than active employees, it’s become nothing more than a collapsing Ponzi scheme.

The collapse of GARS proves that Illinois politicians have no business running the pension funds of state government workers and retirees. State worker retirements don’t belong in the hands of politicians. All five state-run pension systems are suffering from decades of fake reforms and bad judgment. And there is no reason to believe that pension reform under the same politicians should yield different results.

Legislators’ failure to manage their own pension fund raises the question: why do Illinois legislators get a pension in the first place?

Being an Illinois legislator was never meant to be career position like that of a teacher, police officer or a fireman. In fact, in Illinois being a state politician is legally a part-time job.

But Illinois’ supposedly part-time legislators have become career politicians in part because they are provided full-time benefits: Illinois legislators’ pay, at more than $72,000 a year, is the fifth-highest in the nation; they receive pensions equal to 85 percent of their final salary after 20 years of service; and their pensions increase each year by an automatic, compounded 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.

No wonder the two Republican caucus leaders have nearly 30 years of combined experience and Senate President John Cullerton has been in the Illinois General Assembly for 34 years. House Speaker Mike Madigan has been in even longer.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for cushy legislative salaries and incredibly generous pension packages in return for continued fiscal mismanagement and the collapse of the state’s pension systems.

It’s time to end legislator pensions. Part-time legislators shouldn’t be receiving full-time benefits.