Rockford Sun

The city of Chicago is tens of billions of dollars in debt but the state should not bail out the city, an Illinois' 69th District state House representative said during a recent interview.

"No," state Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford) told the Rockford Sun when asked about a bailout. "The city of Chicago should be responsible for cleaning up the fiscal crisis of their own making, without expecting suburban and downstate Illinois taxpayers to pick up the tab."

Sosnowski is in his fourth term in the Illinois General Assembly representing the 69th District, which includes portions Boone and Winnebago counties.

Illinois State Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford)

Earlier this month, City Journal reported Chicago "is in the throes of a New York-circa-1970s-style fiscal crisis" with $20.2 billion in debt and a current and future pensioner liability of $31.5 billion. Last year, the city's pension funds took in $900 million from and earned almost $541 million in investment income but paid out more than $2 billion, according to the City Journal report, which also predicted the city "has zero practical hope of fixing this mess if it keeps to its current path."

The City Journal article follows an Illinois Policy Institute report released in September that said Chicago residents' taxes are higher than ever, local government debt is at a record high and that each household in the city has a burden of $82,000 in that local government debt. 

"And until politicians get serious about structural reforms, that burden will only grow larger," the Illinois Policy Institute report said.

Chicago's police, firefighter, laborer and municipal worker pension funds had more than $25 billion in official unfunded liabilities at the time of the Illinois Policy Institute report, with those pension funds alone responsible for more than a third of local government debt.

"And Chicago’s sister governments – Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Transit Authority – have $11 billion in pension debt and $12 billion in long-term debt, and owe another $2.3 billion for retiree health insurance costs," the Illinois Policy Institute report said.

While the city of Chicago shouldn't expect a state bailout, it should stop borrowing to meet operations expenses, Sosnowski said. 

"The city of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools should make the determination on how to meet their financial obligations with regard to operations, but borrowing for operations is a terrible practice that should be stopped immediately," he said.