Illinois public retiree debt at $203 billion, study reports

SPRINGFIELD — Illinoisans are on the hook for $203 billion in public-sector retiree debt, about a third of the state’s gross domestic product in 2011, according to a new report.

“Politicians keep talking about the state pension problem,” said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy for the Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank, said. “Really our problems are much, much larger than that.”

Illinois’ public pension system owes current and future retirees $83 billion more than it has in assets, but that is less than half the problem, according to the institute’s report released Wednesday. Public sector retiree health care and pension systems also are facing:

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