Task force recommends consolidating pension systems

Posted on October 11, 2019
money
The Governor says he wants to consolidate municipal police and fire pension funds (Photo courtesy: Pixabay)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD– Economies of scale. Pooling resources. Eliminating redundancy. A governor’s task force is recommending Illinois’ suburban and downstate police and fire pension systems consolidate into two.

With 649 systems now, Gov. JB Pritzker explains the current setup is wrong.

“That means 649 portfolio management systems, 649 sets of management fees and duplicative administrative costs,” Pritzker said Thursday in Chicago. “These funds produce substantially lower investment returns than they could if they pooled their resources.”

Pritzker said he wanted to introduce legislation this fall. Lawmakers are back for the fall veto session Oct. 28.

The Illinois Municipal League is pushing this. The state fire union president was on the task force and likes it. The police unions don’t.

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