ML-Implode News - Chicago Sees Pension Crisis Drawing Near

The pension fund for retired Chicago teachers stands at risk of collapse. The city's four funds for other retired city workers are short by $19.5 billion. At least one of the funds is in peril of running out of money in less than a decade. And starting in 2015, the city will be required by the state to make far larger contributions to the funds, which could leave it hundreds of millions of dollars in the red -- as much as it would cost to pay 4,300 police officers to patrol the streets for a year.
"This is kind of the dark cloud that's coming ever closer," Mr. Emanuel said in a recent interview, adding that he had no intention of raising his city's property taxes by as much as 150 percent -- the price tag, he says, that it might take to pay such bills. "That's unacceptable."
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Among the nation's five largest cities, Chicago has put aside the smallest portion of its looming pension obligations, according to a study issued this year by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Its plans were funded at 36 percent by the end of 2012, city documents say. Federal regulators would step in if a corporate pension fund sank to that level, but they have no authority over public pensions.

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Chicago Sees Pension Crisis Drawing Near