Steve Chapman on the Public Pension Crisis

In state after state, elected officials have
promised public employees retirement packages without securing the
revenue needed to keep the promises. In Illinois, the state pegged
its contributions below where they should have been for a long
time. On top of that, lawmakers couldn’t resist the temptation to
borrow from the fund and skip contributions whenever it was
convenient. Stanford University economist Joshua Rauh says that not
only have the states not made progress on the issue overall, they
have actually expanded the gaping canyon they dug. So when it comes
to public pensions, writes Steve Chapman, elected officials have
arrived at a formula that suits them well: Never do today what you
can do tomorrow. And don’t do it then, either.

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