Chicago Still Has Time to Embrace Pension Reform, Moody’s Says
- Unfunded pensions, debt equate to nine times operating revenue
- Downgrade is more likely than upgrade for city, Richman Says
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Chicago still has time to fix its pension problem, but if the junk-rated city wants to improve to investment grade, it must reverse the direction of its mounting retirement debt, according to Naomi Richman, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service.
“Time is not about to run out for Chicago,” Richman said during a panel at the City Club of Chicago on Monday. “The city clearly doesn’t have forever, but there’s still time we think to make policy changes to avoid a full blown financial crisis.”