In today’s political climate, it’s nigh impossible to identify any subject that generates consensus across ideological lines. Which makes the City of Chicago’s four public employee pension systems somewhat unique, because virtually everyone agrees they’re in bad shape.
How bad? Well, according to the federal General Accountability Office, “healthy” public pension systems should have a funded ratio of at least 80%. That just means the dollar value of its assets should cover at least 80% of the dollar value of the benefits it has to pay.
