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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Beware, the Tax Man Has Eyes on You: Potential Hike for Illinoisans is Staggering

Courtesy of Mish.

Live in Chicago? A report by Nuveen shows a pension payment spike looms in 2016, and the potential tax hike to  fix it is staggering.

Please consider Chicago’s Fiscal Stress: New Term, Same Problems.

Pension Payments Are A Growing Portion of the Budget

Years of poor funding exacerbated Chicago’s pension obligations so that it may be infeasible to keep them solvent without modifying benefits. Chicago’s four pension plans have a combined $20.1 billion unfunded liability and funded ratios ranging from just 24% to 57%.



click on any chart for sharper image

A Pension Payment Spike Looms in 2016

A state law enacted in 2010 requires Chicago to begin making actuarially-based annual contributions to its policemen’s and firemen’s pension funds in 2016, resulting in a payment increase of approximately $540 million. Due to the lag between when taxes are levied and collected, paying the required pension payments in 2016 would mean any property tax would have to be levied in 2015. However, the administration was reluctant to pass a budget with higher property taxes prior to the mayoral election. Based on state law and recent actuarial valuations, Chicago is required to contribute $839 million to its policemen’s and firemen’s pensions in 2016 (levy year 2015). But the city has only budgeted for a pension levy of $290.4 million.

Potential Tax Increase Is Staggering

We note that the state law requiring full funding of annual pension payments beginning in 2016 applies not only to Chicago but to a number of overlapping taxing districts such as Chicago Public Schools, Cook County and a handful of other governmental entities. Without reforms, fully funding pension contributions for Chicago and its overlying taxing districts would require substantial revenue increases and/or expenditure cuts.

To get a sense of the magnitude of the property tax increases necessary to move to full funding of annual pension payments, Nuveen Asset Management analyzed the 2013 property tax levies, pension payments and Annual Pension Costs (APC) for Chicago and its overlapping taxing districts as reported in their respective audited financial statements. We analyzed the tax bill of a theoretical $400,000 home in Chicago under current tax requirements and a scenario under which the city and its overlapping taxing districts all make full annual pension payments. The analysis does not include the impact of any specialized property tax exemptions like the homeowner’s exemption or the senior freeze exemption. All tax figures are from each entity’s 2013 fiscal year – the most recent fiscal year in common for all issuers.

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