Jay Rehak, President of the board of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.
I want to set the record straight about the problems at the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. CTPF is a $9.5 billion plan that serves 59,000 Chicago Public School (CPS) and charter school teachers, administrators and retirees. We do not contribute to or receive Social Security benefits, so this plan is our retirement security.
CTPF operates on a simple equation: employees and employers contribute. Our fund invests revenue and pays benefits. For more than 100 years this plan was healthy.
Since 1995, CPS made reduced payments, or skipped payments altogether. Our fund lost out on $3.2 billion in revenue during this period.
While some call for reducing benefits for our retired members, the actuarial reality says otherwise: reducing benefits, besides breaking a promise, will not solve the problem. A lack of revenue created this problem. Restoring revenue will solve it.
We have many options: restore dedicated tax levy, increase taxes, refinance pension debt or eliminate funding schemes that artificially lowered historical payments. No matter which path we choose, we must restore revenue to stabilize funding for CTPF.
Jay C. Rehak,
President, CTPF Board of Trustee
Fred Klonsky 
Yes.. Restore pension fund… .. ! We all paid our share..the city must pay theirs!
This is all true but that fact remains that the city does not care. They will NOT raise taxes with elections so near. They will continue to tell the public that the greedy pensioneers are responsible for the mess rather than the underfunding and theft of funds. And they will belive the spin masters. It is their plan to bring the pensions for all city employees to the brink so that they can renegotiate lower benefits. Foolishly, the union is not backng the retirees either.
Sounds eerily like the same battle being fought at the state level.
Thank you Jay Rehak for tell the truth to the public about the 18 years of pension under-funding by the City of Chicago and the Board of Education. Since the 1920’s Chicago tax payers contributed a dedicated tax levy specifically for Teachers pensions. In 1995, Springfield cut off the funds and made it legal for CPS to Under pay the employer contribution. Since then, over 100,000 teachers, principals, administrators and their families have been short changed over 3.2 Billion in contributions. The Fund has earned 8.7% over the last 35 years, so the lost $$ on investments makes that number higher.
Calling these deliberate mistakes is a kind way of looking at history.