Sangamon Sun

Without members and taxpayers subsidizing its revenue, the State Employees' Retirement System Of Illinois would have lost $890,443,812 in 2018, according to a Sangamon Sun analysis of the latest data reported to the Illinois Department of Insurance Pension Division.

The fund has $2,147,483,647 in total assets. If the fund’s annual losses stay the same, it would run out of money in 15 years without these subsidies.

The fund earned $1,257,039,835 in investment income and other revenue in 2018. At the same time, it paid out $2,147,483,647 in expenses, according to the 2019 biennial report detailing the health of each of the state’s pension funds and retirement systems. The difference between the two shows the fund’s annual loss without subsidies.

Taxpayers added $1,929,175,044 to the fund’s revenue last year – an amount that has increased from $1,699,447,826 five years ago. Members contributed an additional $254,442,466 – $14,789,775 less than five years ago.

In all, subsidies amounted to $2,183,617,510 in 2018.

Year	Total non-subsidy revenue	Total expenses	Outcome without subsidies
2018	$1,257,039,835	$2,507,558,896	-$1,250,519,061
2017	$1,812,878,460	$2,371,186,233	-$558,307,773
2016	-$125,442,932	$2,233,336,930	-$2,358,779,862
2015	$681,377,052	$2,074,535,233	-$1,393,158,181
2014	$2,169,346,258	$1,956,760,558	$212,585,700