Technology – CU-CitizenAccess.org

In order to understand why Champaign is doing so well with their pensions compared to
other Illinois cities and the state itself, we’re going to go through a little crash course about
pensions.
A pension is the benefits paid to employees after they retire, usually a predetermined
amount of money given out each month. The pension is paid out from a pension fund, which is
the pool of money that is used to pay out participating employees’ pensions. The amount of
money within the pension fund is sometimes referred to as the plan fiduciary net position.
Pension funds gain money through employee contributions (the money employees put
into the pension fund), employer contributions (the money employers put into the pension fund),
and investment returns (the money gained from the investing of pensions funds). They generally
lose money through finally paying out an employee’s pension, investment losses, and
administrative upkeep.

Two of the most important concepts when it comes to pensions are total liability and
unfunded liability. Total liability includes the previous costs associated with pensions, but also a
calculation of future costs the pension fund will have to pay for eventually, aka what they will
have to pay when all their employees retire. Employees’ average lifespans, disability rates,
spousal lifespans, etc. are used to calculate what is the most likely amount of money the pension
fund will need o have in order to pay all their employees pensions throughout their lifespan.
As employees pension benefits increase and new employees are hired, the total liability
may become larger than the amount of money the pension fund currently has. This difference
between total liability and available money in the pension fund is called unfunded liability.
Unfunded liability is not due to be paid at the time it is taken on, but there is also no
money to pay for it when it is taken on. Therefore, it is a future payment that is promised to be
paid for later or in parts over time, similar to a loan.
For example, a city establishes a fire department in 1990 with 10 firefighters that when
they retire will receive $10,000 annually. Originally, it was assumed they would collect pension
for 20 years, so the pension fund aimed to have $2,000,000 for the firefighters’ retirement. By
2000, they have the $2,000,000 in plan fiduciary net position, but at this time the state decides
that retired firefighters will receive $15,000 per year instead, and the average lifespan
assumption has increased by 5 years. The pension fund’s total liability has grown from
$2,000,000 to $3,750,000, nearly doubling their original total liability. On top of that,
investments have not returned as much as expected and the city only puts in enough money to
cover administrative costs, so the plan fiduciary net position remained unchanged. While its
$2,000,000 was originally enough to fully fund all the firefighters’ pensions, now it is only
enough to fund 53% of their pensions. There are always a lot more moving funds and

calculations involved in real life examples, but this simple example sums up what has been
happening with many Illinois city pensions.

Aerial photo of the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant facility. Photo from the Constellation Energy website.

Efforts continue to keep Illinois’ aging nuclear power reactors operating

Post author:Martin Repetto / For CU-CitizenAccess
Post published:May 23, 2025
Post category:Environment Government Technology

The Clinton Power Station nuclear reactor, about 34 miles from Champaign, generates enough energy to provide heating and electricity for over 800,000 of Illinois'…

Read more about the article Champaign County doesn’t allow looking up property by name. We made it searchable again.

Darrell Hoemann

Brookens Admin Center in Urbana, IL 61801 on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess

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Post author:CU-CitizenAccess.org
Post published:February 13, 2024
Post category:Article Government Technology

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Read more about the article Health district launches survey on elder care amid deficit of nursing home beds, closed facilities

Farrah Anderson

Broken furniture and items lay outside the former Champaign County Nursing Home which William “Avi” Rothner purchased in 2018. Photo by Farrah Anderson.

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Post author:Farrah Anderson / For CU-CitizenAccess
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Post category:Elderly Watch Health Care Public Health Technology

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Read more about the article University of Illinois seeks to have ‘less adversarial’ relationship with landlords to provide more resources for student tenants

Screenshots of the Housing Explorer retrieved using the Internet Archive.

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Post published:January 4, 2024
Post category:Education Housing Technology

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Facebook hairstylist scams edge out legitimate community stylists

Post author:Anulika Ochuba / For CU-CitizenAccess
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Post category:Neighborhoods Technology

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Read more about the article Champaign County still prevents online name searches of property records, differing from most Illinois counties. Now it plans to limit searching mobile home properties.

Darrell Hoemann

Brookens Admin Center in Urbana, IL 61801 on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess

Champaign County still prevents online name searches of property records, differing from most Illinois counties. Now it plans to limit searching mobile home properties.

Post author:Grace Brinkman / For CU-CitizenAccess and CU-CitizenAccess.org
Post published:December 21, 2023
Post category:Government Housing Public Funds Technology

In 2018, Champaign County had the chance to allow the public to search property records on its website by an owner's name when it…

Read more about the article Champaign looks to expand automated license plate reader program

Darrell Hoemann

Looking south to the Champaign Police Department Building on First Street. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess

Champaign looks to expand automated license plate reader program

Post author:Enji Erdenekhuyag / For CU-CitizenAccess
Post published:December 15, 2023
Post category:Government Justice Technology

Champaign has been using automated license plate readers (ALPR) in an effort to reduce gun violence — and its police department is looking to…

Read more about the article Champaign’s trial run of gunshot detection program fires blanks

Darrell Hoemann

Looking south to the Champaign Police Department Building on First Street. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess

Champaign’s trial run of gunshot detection program fires blanks

Post author:Enji Erdenekhuyag / For CU-CitizenAccess
Post published:December 15, 2023
Post category:Government Justice Technology

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Read more about the article Champaign gunshot detection tech not meeting expectations

Champaign City Council

The city council voted 6-3 on a resolution "Authorizing the Purchase and Installation of Automated License Plate Readers, Gunshot Detection, and Related Equipment from Flock Group, Inc.," in December 2021.

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Post category:Government Neighborhoods Technology

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Nicole Littlefield

Henry Administration Building

Number of surveillance cameras continue to increase on University of Illinois campus; has surged to nearly 2,400

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Post published:June 23, 2023
Post category:Education Government Justice Technology

A steadily increasing number of security cameras have been used to solve hundreds of investigations on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in…