Tag: Illinois

Report finds Illinois holds 30% of pension obligation bond debt in nation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/report-finds-illinois-holds-30-of-pension-obligation-bond-debt-in-nation/article_0ab6d148-1716-11ec-b36b-1b03ea725eeb.html#new_tab

Excerpt:

A new report shows Illinois holds 30% of the nation’s pension obligation bond debt.

A pension obligation bond is a form of debt that some states use to make payments to state-run pension funds. A pension obligation bond gets paid out by a third party and the state then pays back that loan with interest. Financial experts often advise against the use of pension obligation bonds, said Adam Schuster of the Illinois Policy Institute.

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The interest on the pension obligation bonds continues to climb and is leaving Illinois in a worse spot than it was previously in. The state has borrowed a total of $17.2 billion since 2003, but repayment cost is now $31 billion. Pension obligation bonds can save taxpayers money if the interest rates on the bonds is lower than the rate of return on the pension investments. If the rate of return drops below the interest rate on the bonds, then taxpayers are on the hook for the difference. This is a strategy that Schuster said is the same as gambling with the state’s money.

Author(s): Andrew Hensel

Publication Date: 16 Sept 2021

Publication Site: The Center Square

OVER 100% OF DANVILLE MUNICIPAL PROPERTY TAXES CONSUMED BY PENSIONS

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/over-100-of-danville-municipal-property-taxes-consumed-by-pensions/

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Excerpt:

The average Danville household owns nearly $40,000 in state and local pension debt.

Illinois’ worst-in-the-nation pension debt has become a well-known problem. Over $144 billion in pension debt for the five statewide retirement systems breaks down to nearly $30,000 in debt for each household, which must be paid with further tax hikes or further cuts to core government services.

Less well known is the nearly $75 billion of pension debt held by local governments in Illinois, which is the primary reason for Illinois’ second-highest in the nation property taxes. Combined with the state’s pension debt, politicians who mismanaged the pension system dug a $219 billion hole.

In Danville, the average household owns nearly $40,000 in state and local pension debt, with over $10,000 of that debt stemming from local systems for police, firefighters and municipal workers. To pay off that pension debt, a Danville household would have to give up 110% of an entire year’s  $36,172 median annual income.

Author(s): Adam Schuster, Perry Zhao

Publication Date: 20 Sept 2021

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute

Chicago Police Pension Forensic Audit Ends With Disturbing Findings

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/09/03/chicago-police-pension-forensic-audit-ends-with-disturbing-findings/?sh=18a0d9717c0c

Excerpt:

This week, the Chicago Police Department Pension Board Accountability Group—comprised of retired and active Chicago police officers and their dependents— released the scathing findings of a forensic audit of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund. The Group hired an outside expert to conduct the forensic audit after the pension refused their request to do so on its own.

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According to a lawsuit filed this week by Tobe, the pension denied most of his requests for records under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. It’s no secret that state and local government pensions—which are supposed to be the most transparent of all pensions—are regularly criticized for opposing public record requests, particularly related to alternative investment documents.

The report accuses the pension of failing to monitor and fully disclose investment fees and expenses.  It is estimated that fees and expenses could be 10 times greater than the $7.4 million disclosed in the pension’s most recent financial audit.  Tobe believes the fees related to dozens of investment managers are not properly disclosed. Using assumptions from an Oxford study, Tobe estimated that undisclosed fees could be as high as $70 million a year. Also, $2 million to $3 million a year in investment fees may have been paid to Wall Street for doing nothing, i.e., fees on committed, uninvested capital. 

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 3 Sept 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Guest Commentary | Politicians’ next pension ‘fix’: Gambling with your money

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/guest-commentary-politicians-next-pension-fix-gambling-with-your-money/article_7865780f-7ed8-5c1e-8cc5-1ee4e43ca3cb.html#new_tab

Excerpt:

Gambling on the stock market to get out of financial troubles. It’s a fool’s game, but that’s exactly what some politicians in Illinois are considering now to address their cities’ growing pension crises. Lawmakers want to borrow money from the bond market to pay down pension debts by issuing what are known as pension-obligation bonds.

The borrowing scheme is a bit more complicated than the household example, but in essence, pension-obligation bonds are all about taking out a loan, then investing that money and hoping the returns beat out the costs of the loan.

It’s a lose-lose game for taxpayers. If politicians get it right, governments will have extra money to spend and grow even bigger. And if politicians get the bets wrong, they’ll come after taxpayers to pay off their gambling losses.

That’s one of the reasons why national organizations like the Government Finance Officers Association say “state and local governments should not issue POBs.”

Author(s): Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

Publication Date: 12 September 2021

Publication Site: The News-Gazette

Jim Dey | After a year, Teachers’ Retirement System’s dirty laundry put on display

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/jim-dey-after-a-year-teachers-retirement-systems-dirty-laundry-put-on-display/article_f9668f4b-1a9f-512f-b2b4-e04a58b7b08d.html#new_tab

Excerpt:

There was a personnel earthquake in the summer of 2020 at the Teachers’ Retirement System in Springfield.

Ultimately, five high-ranking employees were removed from their positions, including executive director Richard Ingram. The tumult generated clouds of uncertainly that only recently started to clear, revealing improper and possibly criminal behavior.

Although mum at first, TRS officials recently released their first lengthy statement about what occurred, disclosing that a new employee purposely maintained a conflict of interest that he falsely claimed to have ended.

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The OEIG report states the scandal dates back to 2018, when the TRS “began the process of constructing a new pension system that it called the Gemini Project.” Urbanek said the Gemini system recently went online.

That required hiring outside information technology professionals. Singh and his company — Singh 3 Consulting — were initially hired as a contractor. But in 2019, the TRS hired Singh as a permanent employee, the hiring predicated on Singh terminating his relationship with his company.

He told the TRS he had done so. But no one apparently ever checked, because subsequent investigations revealed Singh remained president and chief executive officer.

Author(s): Jim Dey

Publication Date: 12 September 2021

Publication Site: The News-Gazette

Report Claims Taxpayers Are Paying Millions More Than Needed In Unnecessary Fees For Chicago Police Pension Fund

Mary Pat Campbell
Report Claims Taxpayers Are Paying Millions More Than Needed In Unnecessary Fees For Chicago Police Pension Fund

Link: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/08/31/chicago-police-pension-fund-unncecessary-fees-underfunding-report/

Excerpt:

A scathing report has been issued about Chicago’s police pension fund, claiming taxpayers are paying millions of dollars more than needed in unnecessary fees.

Financial auditor Chris Tobe released a report Tuesday, three months after a group of retired officers hired him to review the management of the Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago.

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Tobe said the police pension fund is one of the most underfunded in the country.

He said those hidden fees should set off alarms for taxpayers.

“The financials claim around $7 million a year, but I’ve estimated over $70 million – 10 times that amount – paid out in no-bid contracts to mostly what we call private equity hedge funds,” Tobe said.

Publication Date: 31 August 2021

Publication Site: CBS Chicago

Chicago Police Pension Forensic Audit Ends With Disturbing Findings

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/09/03/chicago-police-pension-forensic-audit-ends-with-disturbing-findings/

Excerpt:

This week, the Chicago Police Department Pension Board Accountability Group—comprised of retired and active Chicago police officers and their dependents— released the scathing findings of a forensic audit of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund. The Group hired an outside expert to conduct the forensic audit after the pension refused their request to do so on its own.

In a September 2, 2021 statement on the police pension’s website it was stated:

“Recently, certain annuitants, without asserting any wrongdoing on the part of the Fund, any Fund employee, or any Board Trustee, past or current, and in fact repeatedly acknowledging no wrongdoing or fraudulent conduct has occurred, have demanded the Board contract with another entity to conduct a desired independent forensic audit. The purpose of a forensic audit is in substance to conduct an investigation as a means of discovering potential fraud, wrongdoing, or other financial crimes. Given that no legitimate cause for this type of audit exists, it is not a prudent use of Fund resources to engage with an additional auditor to perform a forensic audit.”

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According to the report, CPABF is one of the worst funded public pension plans in the U.S. today with a funding ratio at year-end of only 23%. That fact alone merits an independent investigation, in my opinion. And, by the way, forensic investigations of pensions are not necessarily focused upon “potential fraud, wrongdoing or financial crimes.”

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 3 September 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

One Year After Teachers’ Retirement System Head’s Departure, Report Details More Turnover At Top

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nprillinois.org/statehouse/2021-09-08/one-year-after-teachers-retirement-system-heads-departure-report-details-more-turnover-at-top-1

Excerpt:

One year after the head of Illinois’ largest public employee pension fund resigned due to what the fund has only described at “performance issues,” a recently published report by the state’s chief ethics officer reveals the circumstances behind the departures of two more former high-ranking officials at the pension fund in 2020.

The former chief information officer at the Illinois’ Teachers’ Retirement System repeatedly directed contracts toward the company he founded and also lied about having severed ties with the company, according to a report published last month by Illinois Executive Inspector General Susan Haling. TRS manages the pensions of more than 427,000 current and retired teachers as well as pension beneficiaries.

The report centers on former CIO Jay Singh’s conflicts of interest, but also brings to light the firing of TRS’ former chief financial officer, Jana Bergschneider, who was fired last July as the investigation unfolded. Singh resigned in April of last year, two months after he was interviewed as part of an internal investigation into his conflicts of interest.

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Bergschneider was terminated from TRS on July 2, 2020 based upon her “work performance and conduct related to the procurement process on the Gemini Project,” the OEIG report said, apparently quoting from a reason given to investigators by the pension fund.

Ingram was placed on administrative leave at the end of that month — a result of the TRS board’s unanimous vote after an investigation into performance issued conducted by Chicago Law firms King and Spalding. He resigned a few days later and TRS remains tight-lipped about the exact reason for Ingram’s departure, calling it a personnel matter.

But Urbanek reiterated to NPR Illinois the same reasoning given every inquiring media outlet in the last year: that Ingram “had difficulties meeting performance metrics in his contract.”

Author(s): Hannah Meisel

Publication Date: 8 September 2021

Publication Site: NPR Illinois

Twisted Priorities — Preliminary Findings of Forensic Investigation, Police Benefit Annuity Fund of Chicago

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://www.christobe.com/reports/twisted-priorities/

Excerpt:

The Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund (PABF) – commonly referred to as the “Chicago Police Pension Fund” is one of the worst funded public pension plans in the U.S. today and in U.S. history. Its funding ratio as of today is only 23%.

It is also so damaged by a total lack of transparency that it puts the interest of Wall Street & Chicago Investment Managers over its own current and retired officers. PABF has hidden $10s of millions in investment fees, while denying payment for a disabled officer’s wheelchair.

Retired Chicago Police Officer Rosemarie Giambalvo initiated the call for a complete forensic audit of the Chicago Police Pension fund in February 2020 seeking full transparency and accountability. Rosemarie also founded the CPD Pension Board Accountability Group consisting of over 2600 retired, widows, and active officers who signed two petitions calling for the audit. Rosemarie was told during the February 2020 Pension Board meeting that, “whoever wants an audit must pay for it?” One trustee then stated, “it would cost $20,000”. Rosemarie notified the group members and within two weeks raised the full $20,000 from the group to pay for the audit costing the pension board nothing. Justin Kugler stated, “he didn’t care how much money they raised, we will not consent to a forensic audit!” After the elected trustees refused to address the concerns of their underfunded pensions (22% in 2020), the group agreed to hire myself Christopher Tobe, a Forensic Investigator to which I began the forensic audit report upon being hired by Rosemarie Giambalvo and the group.

The board and staff of the Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund (PABF) have gone out of their way to conceal and block information for this report. They illegally denied most of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests only providing small amounts of information which should have been previously disclosed on the web page.

Regardless, we have come up with a report that can have an impact by providing more transparency and accountability for the operations of the fund.

PDF of paper: http://www.christobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PABFforensicaudit.pdf

Author(s): Chris Tobe

Publication Date: 31 August 2021

Publication Site: ChrisTobe.com

Mismanagement Compounding Underfunding: The Chicago Police Pension Forensic Audit

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2021/09/06/mismanagement-compounding-underfunding-the-chicago-police-pension-forensic-audit/

Excerpt:

It is reasonably well-known that the pension plan has been underfunded for years, and that the state, in setting a new funding plan, allowed a “funding ramp” in 2011 and then re-set that ramp in 2016, so that funding according to the “90% funded by 2055” target only began in 2020. However, Tobe alleges that “Chicago has consistently underfunded the plan more than the statutory amount, blatantly breaking the law, with no consequences.”

Regarding fees and management, Tobe alleges that the pension fund has “failed to monitor and fully disclose investment fees and expenses” and that “fees and expenses could be 10 times that which they disclose” because the fund’s disclosure “omits dozens of managers and their fees.” He also reports that the Fund claimed that “hundreds of contracts for the investment managers” are exempt from FOIA, and denied him access to the fund’s own analysis of fees. He concludes that “PABF may have over 100 ‘ghost managers’ in funds of funds,” that is, the fund is required to disclose its managers but it fails to do so, even though Tobe has identified them through other sources.

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With respect to governance, the fund violates a fundamental aspect of prudent governance because its Chief Investment Officer is not a professional with qualification in the field, but simply a trustee and active-duty policeman, and, what’s more, one who has “22 allegations of misconduct as a police officer including one for bribery/official corruption.” Further, no staff members hold the credential of a CFA charter, another marker of professionalism. Another related governance issue is the use of offshore investments, e.g., in the Cayman Islands, which lack key governance and transparency protections of US-based funds.

Author(s): Elizabeth Bauer

Publication Date: 6 September 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Suburban Residents Risk Losing Homes Over Rising Pension Costs

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/suburban-residents-risk-losing-homes-over-rising-pension-costs-52884.cfm

Excerpt:

In the 1990s, Illinois property tax bills were around the national average. But in the two decades from 1999 to 2019, we’ve seen a massive 65% increase in residential property taxes, adjusted for inflation. That increase is what drove Illinois to have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation.

The source of Patricia’s – and her fellow Illinoisans’ – property tax pains? Public employee pensions.

More than 70% of Patricia’s property tax bill goes to the school district. While school districts account for a significant portion of property tax bills in localities across the United States, school district budgets across Chicago and Illinois are getting devoured by underwater pension systems.

While the state is responsible for paying employer pension costs for teachers outside of Chicago, rising pension obligations mean more state dollars are spent on pensions, leaving more classroom costs for school districts to fund through property taxes.

Author(s): Amy Korte

Publication Date: 5 September 2021

Publication Site: Riverbender

One chart tells you much about Chicago’s property tax and its pensions – Wirepoints Quickpoint

Mary Pat Campbell
One chart tells you much about Chicago’s property tax and its pensions – Wirepoints Quickpoint

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Excerpt:

The above is only for taxes that fund the city’s main operating account — its Corporate Fund. Property tax bills in the city include separate charges for the school district and other overlapping taxing districts.

Also, since money is fungible, it’s a bit arbitrary for the city to budget a portion of the property tax to pensions. The city has other revenue sources, though the property tax is the biggest.

Still, the chart makes the point everybody should know: Pensions are a huge and growing crisis. They are the 800-pound gorilla in the room — for Chicago, the state and most of its municipalities.

Author(s): Mark Glennon

Publication Date: 19 August 2021

Publication Site: Wirepoints