The pension crisis is worse than the state admits, and the state’s official projections cannot be trusted.

Across all five state retirement systems, typical career workers pay for about 5% of the cost of their pension benefits. They receive an average of $1.7 million to $3.6 million.

A pension plan pushed by one Illinois think tank fails to reform the state’s broken pension system and risks repeating costly mistakes. Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker shouldn’t be fooled and should instead endorse meaningful, lasting reform.

Police, firemen and other government workers will be laid off to cover pension costs.

Former Gov. Jim Edgar’s pension compromise with House Speaker Mike Madigan in the 1990s set the state’s pension funds down an unsustainable road.

What happens when financial gimmicks win out over real pension reform?