Illinois & It's Pension Debts

There are several ways to discuss and visualize the staggering debt issues facing residents of Illinois. On one level are the debts of the state.  This chart from late April by the Pew Trust shows Illinois debt and uncovered retirement costs as a share of state resources at over 30% of personal income.  Note that this data set is from 2013 so the numbers shown for Illinois are likely worse.  For comparison if you look down this chart you'll see that the average for the US is around 18%.  

However, Illinois has many layers of government.  Besides the state there are counties, townships municipalities, forest preserves, teacher's pensions, pensions for public employees, water reclamation districts, mosquito abatement etc.  Many of these also have pensions or obligations that are also woefully underfunded.  I don't have time to go into all of that but here are a few statistics that I'll share that show some of the depth of the problem.  No commentary and not making a political statement.  I'm just trying to show some of the facts.

"203 Billion and Counting:  Total Debt For State & Local Retirement Benefits in Illinois."  Note this number, if correct and using most recent population statistics would mean each person in the state would owe $16,111 to satisfy the debt.

"$125,000: The pension debt each Chicago household is really on the hook for."