Another Blue State Success Story: Illinois State Workers' Pensions About to Go Bye-Bye

All across the country, state public sector pensions are melting down faster than a Slurpee in one of Al Gore's four cavernous saunas.

That said, when it comes to the worst of the worst, no state beats the People's Utopia of Illinois, political home to one Barack H. Obama. Please consider 'Illinois ranks dead last in funding worker pensions."

For the second year in a row, Illinois ranks dead last when it comes to saving money to pay promised worker pensions -- and the hole is getting worse... According to a new report being issued this morning by the Pew Center on the States, Illinois through fiscal 2009 had set aside just 51% of the $126 billion it will need to pay retired workers their pensions.

...Above and beyond the $62 billion the state needs but doesn't have for pensions is another $44 billion it will need for promised retiree health care, Pew says. Illinois has set aside only .1% of that figure.

Yes, you read that right -- one tenth of one percent.

Normal citizens are forced to pay 7% or more into Social Security and their benefits are capped at about $30,000 annually. If they're lucky, they'll collect on most of that and some kind of very limited Medicare benefits, thanks to Obamacare's disastrous effects on seniors.

On the other hand, Illinois has thousands of retirees guaranteed six-figure salaries in retirement. 4,352 to be exact, a 20% increase over 2009. And the state's "new, improved" system limits payouts to "only" $86,000-a-year or roughly three times that of the typical private sector worker on Social Security.

The inmates truly are running the asylum in Illinois ("inmates" is a nice term for progressives).