CHICAGO TRIBUNE
How Illinois Democrats hoodwinked the middle class
by Kristen McQueary
October 22, 2015

…Under a Democrat-controlled state government between 2003 and 2015, the state’s unfunded pension liability skyrocketed to more than $111 billion from about $43 billion. Through a series of monumentally bad decisions, the Democrats have imperiled the retirements of thousands of workers. They approved a $10 billion pension bond sale to prop up the funds in 2003, which added $21.9 billion to the state’s long-term pension debt, according to a Tribune analysis. In 2005, the Democrats passed a bill that lowered the state’s required pension contributions over a two-year period — with the blessing of organized labor. READ MORE