Sandwich Police Pension Fund listed as 115th most underfunded police and fire system in Illinois for 2024

In 2024, the Sandwich Police Pension Fund ranked 115th among the most underfunded police and fire pension systems in Illinois, Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) records show. The Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) published the updated rankings.

Established as part of Illinois’ Village or Township pension configuration, this fund posted total pension liabilities reaching $14,941,920 and reported actuarial funding assets totaling $7,877,497.

A funding level of 52.7% was reported, which means the fund is currently missing 47.3% of the assets required to cover all promised pension benefits for police personnel.

The shortfall created an unfunded liability estimated at $7,064,423 for the pension system.

The Illinois Department of Insurance tracks and releases information on local police and fire pension plans, which are financially supported by each municipality’s taxpayers.

As of 2024, 363 police pensions and 300 fire pensions operated in Illinois. Some municipalities maintain both systems while others support only one.

Certain municipalities operate without unfunded pension debt. In 2024, 64 municipalities had no outstanding police or fire pension liability and did not appear in the underfunded rankings.

Pension benefits for police and fire departments, defined as “pension benefits,” serve as deferred compensation. Local officials are responsible for making retirement promises but do not always ensure enough contributions from employees and taxpayers. Insufficient contributions create a pension funding gap, resulting in additional long-term liabilities for municipalities and passing this cost along to future taxpayers. Annual municipal contributions, which are frequently financed by property taxes, are reflected in the annual data gathered by the IDOI.

In 2024, police and fire pension funds across the state averaged a funding status of 65.1%, showing that shortfalls are persistent among Illinois’ public safety retirement plans.

The lowest funding ratio in Illinois was attributed to the Glencoe Firefighters Pension Fund, with just 0.9% of required assets.

Conversely, the Savoy Firefighters Pension Fund recorded the highest funding ratio, at 797.7%, maintaining $149,803 in funding and substantially surpassing its obligation levels.

Illinois’ total state-level pension debt rose by $1.5 billion in 2024 to $143.7 billion, per the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. This marked the third year with increased pension debt, drawing close to the two-decade high of $144.2 billion set in 2020.

The most recent State Department of Insurance Public Pension Division report determined that suburban and downstate police and fire pension systems collectively carried $12.1 billion in unfunded actuarial liabilities for 2024. The combined funding rate was 49.18%, which means less than half of required assets were in place to secure future retiree payments.

In 2024, Illinois ranked as the state with the largest proportion of its GDP committed to unfunded pension liabilities at nearly 20%, based on Equable Institute analysis.

The Illinois Policy Institute stated that this expanding deficit raises pressure on taxpayers. The organization’s analysis found that taxpayer funding for state pension plans expanded from $614 million in fiscal 1996 to $11.2 billion projected for fiscal 2025.

Details in this article come from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI). Source material is available here.