July 15, 2026
Originally published in Crain's Chicago Business on July 15, 2026.
Springfield has developed a dangerous governing habit.
Rather than confronting the true cost of its policy choices, it increasingly shifts those costs to local governments.
The result is a growing list of unfunded mandates that force municipalities, counties, school districts, and other units of government to absorb new obligations without new resources to pay for them. In 2025 alone, the General Assembly enacted 44 unfunded mandates affecting counties and municipalities and considered over 195 pension-related bills in the 2025-2026 session, many with significant long-term fiscal implications. That should concern every Illinois taxpayer.
No bill better illustrates this problem than last year’s legislation ”sweetening” pension benefits for Chicago police and firefighters.
In the chaotic final hours of the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers rushed through legislation expanding Chicago’s public safety pension benefits. Supporters argued the bill both corrected an inequity in benefits for Chicago public safety workers relative to downstate counterparts and would address shortcomings in Tier 2. However, no actuarial analysis supported the Tier 2 argument, and the overall argument was simply that benefits were not quite as generous as those of others — a classic case of “Keeping Up with the Joneses” framed as a matter of fairness.
The bill passed unanimously without even a perfunctory floor debate and without a fiscal note providing analysis. The result was a bill that solved one “problem” by creating another: billions of dollars in new pension obligations imposed on a fiscally challenged city without a plan to pay for them.
Chicago’s police and fire pension funds were themselves already among the most underfunded in the nation, yet Springfield added another permanent liability while leaving Chicago taxpayers to pay either through higher property taxes or reduced public services.
Governor Pritzker, apprised of the fiscal impact, said he would veto the bill if Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson objected. The objection never came. The bill became law. Chicago taxpayers inherited the cost, and the only question was how high it would be.
We no longer have to speculate.
Chicago’s just-released 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) projects that the “sweetener” will require approximately $8.4 billion in additional contributions to its police and fire pension funds through 2055. Under the Illinois Constitution, those costs are now locked into Chicago’s financial future.
But this is not really a story about one pension bill. It is about a legislative culture that has grown far too comfortable shifting costs instead of solving problems.
When legislators pass unfunded mandates, local governments inherit the obligations, and taxpayers receive the bill. And when today’s leaders refuse to pay for today’s promises, tomorrow’s taxpayers inherit them instead. Sometimes that bill arrives as higher property taxes. Sometimes it comes as deferred infrastructure maintenance, reduced services, or, ironically, fewer public safety resources. More often, it arrives as all of the above.
Recognizing a legitimate problem does not excuse solving it irresponsibly. If lawmakers believe additional pension benefits are justified, they should also identify how those benefits will be financed. Every proposal imposing new financial obligations should be accompanied by a fiscal note, an independent actuarial analysis if applicable, full public disclosure of the lifetime cost, and, most importantly, a dedicated funding plan.
If the state believes a new obligation is worth imposing, it should also explain who pays and how it will be paid for. Instead, Illinois too often separates those conversations, creating structural deficits for local governments while allowing the State to avoid difficult fiscal choices.
Chicago faces enormous structural pressures. Pension costs continue to consume growing shares of the budget, debt service remains substantial, and revenue growth has slowed while operating costs rise. Every additional dollar required for pension contributions is one less dollar available for government services.
This is not simply an accounting problem — it is a state governance problem. Illinois has worked hard to rebuild its fiscal credibility after years of instability. It should stop undermining that progress by weakening the finances of its cities, counties, and school districts.
Every unfunded mandate is, in effect, a tax increase or service cut waiting to happen. Springfield should stop pretending otherwise. Local governments should demand it. And taxpayers at all levels should insist that every promise made in Springfield comes with an honest, accountable plan to pay for it.