In Lake County and across Illinois, fire pensions are driving up property taxes and leaving fewer resources for safety.
By LyLena Estabine | Illinois Policy Institute
Chicago fire pensions may be close to insolvency, but the city is not alone: firefighter pensions are consuming most of the resources needed to keep communities safe.
Statewide, the most recent data shows municipal fire department increased property taxes by $371.6 million between 1996 and 2023, adjusted for inflation. While the total tripled, pensions have gone from taking less than half of the property taxes to taking nearly three-fourths: $311.6 million more in 2023 than in 1996.
Actual fire protection operated on $60 million more than in 1996.
Firefighters receive generous pensions, and rightly so given the dangerous nature of their work. However, 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, with only 49 cents on hand for each dollar owed.
The low funding ratio isn’t because property taxes aren’t going towards pensions. In most counties more property tax revenue is going towards pensions than in the past. In 1996, 48% of these revenues went toward pensions compared to 73% in 2023. A similar pattern can be seen in counties across the state.
That doesn’t mean every town is cutting back on fire services, but it does mean an increasing share of local tax dollars is being consumed by pension costs rather than the services residents rely on.
At 1.83% of their home’s value each year, Illinoisans pay the highest average effective property tax rate in the nation. But in some communities, it’s worse than that figure would indicate.
Read more here.
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