Mayors across the state of Illinois are urging legislators to overhaul police and fire pension plans to alleviate the financial burden on local governments.
At a news conference in the capital of Springfield Monday, several mayors spoke of how rising pensions costs are forcing cutbacks in essential services.
"The police and fire pension obligations are enormous," said Du Quoin mayor Rex Duncan. "We are about at half of where we should be in terms of what we have paid into those funds. These are the struggles that every mayor in every community and every city council is having to deal with today."
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In 2016, state law will require cities to make mandatory contribution increases so they will reach 90 percent funding by 2040, or the state will divert state grant money to cities into pension funds.
"I think the state asking for a 90 percent funding level is being a little bit over the top in what they are expecting," said Murphysboro mayor Will Stephens.
Lawmakers recently approved legislation for Chicago's municipal employees, but the city has not yet addressed a $10 billion shortfall in police and fire retirement funds.
After Chicago, the nine biggest cities in Illinois have a combined $1.5 billion in unfunded debt to retirement funds for public safety workers.
Many of the mayors at the conference Monday said they would like their plans to include measures such as a later retirement age and lower annual cost-of-living adjustments.
Most agreed, however, that it will be difficult for lawmakers to approve a new plan before they adjourn on May 31.
"The math, in fact, is easy," said Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey. "The politics, unfortunately, is hard."
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