Chicago Pension Investments: Rahm Emanuel's Proposed Merger Could Benefit Campaign Donors

Just 12 weeks after Rahm Emanuel won a bruising battle for re-election, the Chicago mayor has unveiled a pension initiative that could be a significant financial boon for his largest campaign contributors. On Wednesday, the mayor proposed shifting city teachers' retirement savings into a state fund that invests heavily in -- and pays big fees to -- financial firms whose executives bankrolled the mayor’s campaign.

At a city hall press conference, Emanuel portrayed the plan as a way to solve Chicago’s educational funding crisis. Emanuel said teachers could agree to either contribute 7 percent of their pay to the existing city pension system or merge the city’s own $11 billion teachers' pension fund -- controlled by the teachers themselves -- with the $45 billion state teachers' fund controlled, by statute, by Gov. Bruce Rauner. Emanuel said the latter proposal would mean that the state funds teacher pensions equitably. As of now, the city of Chicago pays a larger share of its teachers' pensions than other municipalities in Illinois do.

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