Across Illinois, police pensions are taking an ever-greater share of property tax dollars, leaving fewer resources for public safety.
Safety concerns are rising on the streets and aboard public transit, but taxpayers are seeing higher property tax bills with an ever-larger share going to pensions rather than protection.
Police officers receive generous pensions, and rightly so given the dangerous nature of their work. But when those benefits become overpromised – as they have become in Illinois – they undermine retirement security and reduce the amount of money available for service.
Police and fire pensions outside of Chicago reported combined liabilities of $493.1 billion in 2024. They have only 49 cents on hand for each dollar owed.
The low funding ratio isn’t because property taxes aren’t going toward pensions. In fact, in most counties more property tax revenue is going toward property taxes than in the past.
In 1996, pensions were already consuming more municipal police department property taxes than were protective services. With 59% of property tax levies dedicated to pensions, that left only 41% for protective services.
Since then, the imbalance has gotten worse. Only 22 cents of every property tax dollar for municipal police departments went towards protective services in 2023. A similar pattern can be seen in counties across the state.
That means an increasing share of local tax dollars is being consumed by pension costs rather than the services residents rely on and think they are paying for.
At 1.83% of a home’s value each year, Illinoisans pay the highest average effective property tax rate nationwide. But higher property taxes are increasingly going to pay for pensions rather than services. Statewide, total spending for municipal police departments is up $607 million, but $513 million of that has gone to pensions and only $94 million to protective services.
But in some communities, it’s worse than that. In St. Clair and DuPage counties, the effective property tax is 2.09% – among the highest rates in the state.
Higher property taxes should lead to better-funded services, but that’s not how things have played out.
While the money going toward police pensions in St. Clair County has grown by $8.9 million, the amount going toward services has only grown $326,000. In DuPage County, $53.8 million has gone to police pensions while only $700,400 has gone to police services.
That’s 99% of property tax revenues collected for police officers going toward retirements rather than the day-to-day work of protecting the community. A similar pattern can be seen statewide.
Illinois residents are paying more while services receive less funding. That means less investment in police officers keeping the public safe and less training and equipment to keep them safe.
Illinois can’t afford to let police pension costs keep climbing. Meaningful reform – including constitutional change, local buyouts and optional 401(k)-style plans – is essential to protect residents, both from crime and further tax hikes.
