Park Forest Police Pension Fund listed as 74th most underfunded police and fire pension in Illinois for 2024

In 2024, the Park Forest Police Pension Fund was the 74th most underfunded police and fire pension system in Illinois, data from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI) shows.

Operating within Illinois’ Village or Township pension framework, the fund carried $63,259,495 in total pension obligations and had an actuarial asset value of $30,149,724.

This produced a funding level of 47.7%, which means 52.3% of assets needed to pay out all promised retirement benefits were not on hand.

That asset-to-obligation shortfall translated to an unfunded liability totaling about $33,109,771 for the pension system.

The Illinois Department of Insurance maintains data on municipal police and fire pensions. These systems are primarily funded by the residents of each locality.

As of 2024, there were 300 fire and 363 police pension systems in Illinois. Certain municipalities run both funds, while others oversee only one.

Unfunded pension liabilities are not universal. Sixty-four municipalities in 2024 had no current police or fire pension debt and were not included in the underfunded rankings.

Pension obligations for police and fire employees—commonly known as “pension benefits”—are a form of deferred payment. While municipal authorities pledge to provide these retirement benefits, they may do so without securing full funding through required employee or taxpayer contributions. Such imbalances create municipal pension debt, ultimately shifting responsibility for unfunded obligations onto later generations. Annual contributions to maintain fund viability largely come from property taxes, as evidenced by IDOI-reported data.

In 2024, the average funding ratio for Illinois police and fire pension plans stood at 65.1%, underscoring persistent underfunding challenges across local public safety systems.

The least funded pension in the state, the Glencoe Firefighters Pension Fund, had an asset ratio of only 0.9%.

At the opposite end, the most well-funded system, Savoy Firefighters Pension Fund, reported a funding ratio of 797.7%, with its actuarial assets of $149,803 far exceeding its liabilities.

Illinois’ statewide pension shortfall increased by $1.5 billion in 2024, lifting total unfunded liabilities to $143.7 billion, based on data from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. Debt has grown for a third straight year and remains just under the state’s 20-year peak of $144.2 billion in 2020.

Findings from the State Department of Insurance Public Pension Division indicate that suburban and downstate pension systems held $12.1 billion in unfunded actuarial debt in 2024, with a combined funded status of 49.18%. More than half the resources necessary to meet pension requirements were missing.

In 2024, Illinois dedicated the biggest portion of any state’s GDP to cover unfunded pension costs, nearly 20%, according to findings from the Equable Institute. 

The Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, says this trend is putting increased pressure on taxpayers. The institute notes taxpayer contributions toward state-sponsored pensions grew from $614 million in fiscal 1996 to $11.2 billion by fiscal 2025.

Information for this article was sourced from the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI). Full data is available here.