Illinois Teachers to get government contribution increase

The State of Illinois is set to increase its contribution to its teachers’ pension fund for fiscal year 2018. Decades of state government underfunding and weakening investment returns led the board of trustees of the $45.9 billion Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois to give preliminary approval to a state government contribution for fiscal year 2018 of $4.56 billion — a 14.5 percent increase over the state contribution for the current fiscal year.

Of the $4.56 billion state contribution for fiscal year 2018, only $974 million is needed to pay the anticipated annual cost of Illinois TRS pensions during the year. The remaining $3.59 billion in the contribution is dedicated to help pay off the pension fund’s $71.4 billion unfunded liability.

Illinois TRS committed $300 million to each Starwood Global Opportunity Fund XI in August and Lone Star Real Estate Fund V in February. The pension fund has a target allocation to real