Storyteller, journalist, Cape Cod wash ashore.
The growing debt crisis in public sector pensions — governments face a $757 billion shortfall in funding their retirement promises, according to one estimate — is coming at a time when unprecedented numbers of baby boomers are reaching retirement age. Read more.
Gov. Pat Quinn proposed an ambitious plan Friday to bring Illinois out of its $83 billion pension funding hole, but he still needs the buy-in of the General Assembly and labor unions, not to mention a constitutional blessing, to make it a reality. Read more.
As school districts across the state contemplate how they’ll absorb teacher retirement costs if state leaders stop paying into educators’ pension plans, a Register Star analysis shows the burden here is likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Read more.
The Illinois Legislature gave Rockford a gift on its pension funding, but it’s up to the city’s 14 alderman to decide how much they’ll take advantage of it in the 2012 budget. Read more.
A popular public worker benefit, once designed to make up for lower pay, now costs Rock River Valley taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year at a time of unprecedented financial stress. Read more.
Public pension plans don’t become poorly funded overnight. In most cases, it takes years of poor management for a plan’s financial standing to plummet.
Illinois, unsurprisingly, is a special case. Read more.
In one recurring dream, Stan North needs to fire his gun but the trigger won’t work. In another, he shoots, but the bullets come out in slow motion.
His blood pressure remains high, even with medication. He has trouble sleeping. He admits his wife finds him irritable at times, a hard man to live with.
Most of all, if a situation required him to fire his gun to save a life, the Rockford police officer told the Police Pension Board he’s not sure he could get the job done.
“I’d hesitate,” he said. “Seeing what I saw, the way this transpired with (Mark Anthony) Barmore, it was a sight I wish not to repeat.” Read more.
