A plan to raise more money to pay for Illinois’ massively underfunded pension system is being criticized Thursday.  IPR’s Tony Arnold reports.

 

A group of labor leaders recently released a plan to cut some tax breaks or tax credits for certain industries to help pay for the state’s pension obligations.

 

They say union members paid into the pension plan - but the State of Illinois didn’t pay its part for decades.

 

A government budget watchdog group says that plan won’t solve the problem.

 

Laurence Msall heads The Civic Federation.

 

MSALL: Union support is important for resolving this issue but just saying that we’re going to fix it on the revenue side fails to recognize the size of the deficit and the size of the unfunded liability and the crisis that we face.

 

Union groups say the state could raise about 2 billion dollars by cutting tax credits.

 

But the governor’s office says the state has 95 billion dollars in unfunded pension obligations.

 

Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Springfield in January.