Accounting analyst: SEC should examine Illinois pension funding

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois is less tardy than usual with its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal year 2025, but other states move far more quickly.

The report for the fiscal year than ended on June 30, 2025 was released on June 9 by Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office said the report was released nearly eight months earlier than the prior ACFR cycle, signaling a “transformative improvement” in Illinois’ ability to deliver financial information.

Truth in Accounting founder & CEO Sheila Weinberg said the state set a low bar in prior years.

“I guess bringing it to only less than a year is better, but most governments do it within 180 days and corporations obviously get it done a lot quicker,” Weinberg told The Center Square.

States bordering Illinois released their financial reports months ago for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025. Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana released their reports last December. Missouri and Kentucky followed in February.

New York’s report was released Sept. 1, five months and a day after the end of its fiscal year on March 31.

Weinberg said the report is supposed to be useful for governments to make decisions, but the report was not available during budget time. She said the ACFR shows that Illinois continues to put off paying bills.

“So they go ahead and instead defer the costs, and they don’t include those in the budget. Therefore, it’s a deferred liability that actually could become a deferred tax that people are going to have to pay,” Weinberg said.

The Truth in Accounting CEO said the Securities and Exchange Commission should take another look at the state’s pension contributions.

The SEC charged Illinois with securities fraud in 2013 for misleading municipal bond investors about the state’s approach to funding its pension obligations.

Weinberg said the state still uses the same schedule and claims it will pay 90% of its pension obligations over 50 years.

“The SEC clearly said that is misleading to the public, so maybe the SEC should look at it again,” Weinberg said.

Weinberg said Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims to be balancing the budget, but the state is not paying what pension plan actuaries say it should pay.

“He is balancing the budget by shorting the pension plans by $5 billion,” Weinberg said.

Illinois has an estimated $144 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities.