The numbers are out and the problem is staggering. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management estimates that the states have roughly 3.3 trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities. Then you need to add another 574 billion dollars to represent the unfunded pension liabilities of all the counties and cities within the 50 states.
This number is continuing to grow. If we shut off the faucet right now, these would be the numbers. The big government mentality, that strange impulse to think that a single entity can both regulate and conduct a given business without massive inefficacy and outright theft, is the culprit behind this latest financial gaffe. While both national political parties are guilty of putting their hands in the cookie jar, this big government philosophy is only openly espoused by the Democrats. It should be no shock that all almost all of the nine cities with the most underfunded pensions have been utterly dominated by the Democrat mayors for decades. Check it out:
#9 Detroit
Current Mayor: David Bing (Dem 2009)
Streak of Democrat Mayors: unbroken since 1962
Unfunded liability: $6.4 billion
Unfunded liability per household: $18,643
Solvency horizon: 2023
#8 Baltimore
Current Mayor: Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Streak of Democrat Mayors: unbroken since 1967
Unfunded liability: $3.7 billion
Unfunded liability per household: $15,420
Solvency horizon: 2022
#7 New York City
Current Mayor: Michael Bloomberg (Independent since 2007, before that, Republican)
Preceded by Republicans since 1994
Streak of Democrat Mayors before 1994: unbroken since 1946
Unfunded liability: $122.2 billion
Unfunded liability per household: $38,886
Solvency horizon: 2021
