Chicago school officials presented a budget that relies on the state of Illinois passing an overhaul of its underfunded pension system and assumes that the teachers’ union will agree to pay more into their retirement funds, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The $5.4 billion operating budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is more than $230 million smaller than last year’s spending plan, district officials said. The plan relies on the state providing the district with an additional $215 million for its pension bills, which lawmakers and Governor Bruce Rauner (R) have agreed to pay only if the state comes up with a plan to restructure its own retirement system. The six-month spending plan approved at the end of June allows Chicago to establish a property tax levy up to $250 million specifically to help cover the teachers’ pension fund. The retirement system was only 52 percent funded as of June 30, 2015. The school system also secured $131 million of additional state funding from a so-called equity grant to bolster districts with high concentrations of students in poverty.
