GARS, the Illinois General Assembly Retirement System, is only 13.52% funded, down from 17% funded in 2013. How long can GARS last?

Meanwhile, Illinois has accrued a combined net pension liability of roughly $130 billion on which it assumes a 7% return.

Effectively, that is an interest liability of $9.1 billion a year even though that liability technically does not bear interest.

This is a guest post from Michael Lucci at the Illinois Policy Institute.

Interest on Illinois' Pension Debt is $9.1 Billion Per Year

Illinois isn't covering the interest payments on its pension debt. Those interest payments total $9.1 billion a year.

This is the reason Illinois' pension debt continues to grow. As with personal credit card debt, until the interest is paid off none of the actual debt gets erased. Illinois' pension debt is so large that it's unlikely payments will cover the interest on the pension debt until 2028, according to a November 2016 special pension briefing from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.