State auditors report pension debt

state's five pension systems are collectively under funded by more than $62 billion,…liability was $8 billion more than the previous year, an increase of 14.7 percent.

But it could be worse. A recent state law seeks to "smooth" sudden investment gains or losses by spreading them over five years rather than making the pension systems adjust for them annually.  Had that law not been in place, auditors pegged the fair market downturn of the pension systems at $23.5 billion, an increase of 43.2 percent.

The state is 15 years into a 50-year plan to restore financial health to the pension systems. The plan, which spells out the required state contributions to the systems, is intended to have the systems 90 percent funded in 2045.

plans cannot reduce the benefits of existing pensioners or even those already within the system. Those benefits are constitutionally protected. Rather, Quinn's plan would create a new system for all new hires. It's estimated such a change would save billions of dollars over the coming decades, though little initially.

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