Last night was originally planned to be the night that the Kankakee City Council heard the first reading of a plan to issue general obligation bonds for sale to raise funds to pay off unfunded liabilities in the city’s police and fire pensions. Right now Kankakee is facing a pension fund hole of nearly 110 million dollars. If action isn’t taken, increasingly large portions of tax revenue will end up going to pay off that debt and likely a significant rise in property taxes to foot the bill. The bond issue to get the pension debt 90 percent paid off will be a total of 95 million dollars. That figure includes a 1 million dollar contingency fund for each pension account in the event that the return on investment falls short of expectation. Mayor Chris Curtis last night said the delay, decided upon at the April 11 Budget Committee meeeting, is to get more public meetings held in an effort to provide complete transparency with residents about the plan.
The bonds would be offered for sale immediately following city council approval.
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