Cahokia Heights Police Pension Fund places 56th among Illinois’ most underfunded public safety pension plans in 2024

The Cahokia Heights Police Pension Fund in Centreville ranked as the 56th most underfunded police and fire pension plan in Illinois for 2024, Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) data shows.

Structured under the state’s city pension fund system, this fund disclosed total pension liabilities of $35,981,323, with its actuarial funding value at $16,317,291.

This calculates to a funding ratio of 45.3%, leaving the fund short by 54.7% in actuarial assets required to meet all retirement benefit obligations.

The gap between fund assets and its obligations resulted in an unfunded liability of approximately $19,664,032.

The Illinois Department of Insurance compiles and disseminates information concerning local police and fire pension funds—retirement systems primarily guaranteed by each municipality’s taxpayers.

In 2024, Illinois administered 300 fire and 363 police pension funds statewide. While some local governments are responsible for both funds, others only manage one.

There are municipalities without any unfunded pension debt. In 2024, 64 municipalities reported no outstanding police or fire pension liabilities and did not figure into these underfunding rankings.

Frequently labeled as “pension benefits,” police and fire pension commitments act as deferred pay. City leaders promise to provide financial security in retirement for public safety workers even if insufficient resources are collected from staff or taxpayers, and these funding shortfalls can accumulate, resulting in long-term debt shouldered by future residents. Municipal pension systems are sustained through yearly contributions, typically sourced from property tax revenues, which are included in data provided by the IDOI.

Statewide, Illinois police and firefighter pensions averaged a 65.1% funding ratio in 2024, underscoring pervasive shortfalls in public safety retirement funding.

Of all such Illinois funds, the Glencoe Firefighters Pension Fund was lowest funded at 0.9%.

Conversely, Savoy Firefighters Pension Fund appeared most overfunded in the state with a 797.7% funding ratio and actuarial assets of $149,803, far above its liabilities.

Statewide pension debt in Illinois rose by $1.5 billion to $143.7 billion in 2024, according to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. This marked three years of sequential growth, leaving total debt just under its 20-year record of $144.2 billion set in 2020.

An analysis from the State Department of Insurance Public Pension Division found that suburban and downstate Illinois pension systems held $12.1 billion in unfunded actuarial liabilities as of 2024, resulting in a collective funding level of 49.18%. This indicated more than half the funds needed to fulfill promised retirement benefits were missing.

As of 2024, Illinois allocated nearly 20% of state GDP to unfunded pension obligations, revealed a study by the Equable Institute. 

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, this situation is placing an expanding burden on taxpayers. Their data shows taxpayer contributions to state pensions rising from $614 million in fiscal 1996 to $11.2 billion in fiscal 2025.

Information featured in this article came from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI). The full source material is available here.