Mayor Johnson aims to address a problem that vexed his predecessors: Woefully underfunded pensions
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson speaks during a policing, public safety and public trust forum on May 3, 2023, at Malcom X College.
Local Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, meanwhile, released a video in which he said he’s working with City Hall on broader solutions. The clip was seen as a positive sign due to the otherwise contentious relationship Catanzara has with City Hall and his claim that swaths of the police force would quit if Johnson were elected.Creating a task force will be the easy part, however, as finding money to boost the city’s pensions has bedeviled Johnson’s predecessors.
Now it’s Johnson’s turn to seek solutions to a politically fraught problem with few clear legal remedies. Lightfoot had argued the 2021 state bill would increase firefighter pension costs and could lead to property tax hikes, but supporters, including sponsor Democratic state Sen. Robert Martwick, said it puts Chicago firefighter pensions on par with suburban and downstate systems.The legislation did away with a pension law that stipulates a Chicago firefighter born on or after Jan. 1, 1966, will receive a non-compounding annual 1.
Still, Lightfoot warned that the change would double pension costs by $18 million to $30 million each year. She argued that a similar bill introduced by Martwick related to police pensions would spike Chicago’s annual costs by $57 million to $96 million a year.
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