TRS: State Will Have To Pick Up More Of Teacher Pensions

The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System says it expects a lower return on its pension investments in the next year.

TRS says it's still a good assumed rate of investment return at 7.5 percent.  That falls in line with similar pension systems nationwide.

But it's not as profitable as 8-percent, which T-R-S had been using for the previous few years.

Dave Urbanek is with TRS. He said the unpredictable nature of the international economy spurred the decision to lower the rate.

"We see a lot of volatility in the economy and it just became apparent that statistically, the system was less likely to be able to sustain an 8-percent rate of return on our investments," he said.

Urbanek said the state will have to kick in more money to TRS next year as a result.  

If the 7.5 percent rate would have been in place this past year, for example, Urbanek said Illinois would have paid out $500 million more to TRS.