Need a clearer picture on how the proposed Gross Receipts Tax may impact Economic Development? Join the Lake County Municipal League on Thursday, April 19, for a discussion.

Dave Young and Len Becker from Lake County Partners will join Jason Lake, CPA and founder of NexGen, to discuss the impact of GRT on community/economic development, especially with regard to the State and the County's ability to compete with neighboring states.

The meeting will be held at the Vernon Hills Golf Course, 291 Evergreen at Route 45. Hors d'oeuvres at 6:00 pm, program begins at 7:00 pm. Reservations are necessary. Please or call (847) 270-3126 to reserve by Friday, April 13.

The Lake County Municipal League will be joining the Illinois Municipal League for its annual Legislative Day activities on May 2. The schedule of events is listed below:

Legislative Briefing
10:00 am
Hilton Springfield Hotel

Time to Meet your Legislators
11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Contact Legislators to schedule appointments

Legislative Reception
6:00 to 8:00 pm Illinois State Library*

* You must be on a guest list to enter the State Library. If you do not RSVP before May 2, you will not be able to attend.

Hotel arrangements are your responsibility. The League will invite the Lake County delegation to the Reception if we have LCML members attending. Please if you plan to attend. We would like to have a tentative list of attendees by April 20.

The Lake County School Coalition and Stevenson Area PROUD are sponsoring a Community Forum on Substance Abuse. Lake County public officials are invited to attend to the Forum on Thursday, April 12 from 7:00-8:30 pm at Stevenson HIgh School.

In a recent Illinois Youth Survey, 13% of sixth graders, 23% of eight graders, 39% of 10th graders and 58% of 12th graders drank alcohol in the past month. Representatives of local and county underage drinking task forces/ coalitions, law enforcement, parents, youth, school and community members will be in attendance.

Topics include

• Strategies to address the problem of underage drinking
• Legislative initiatives to ban the marketing of "alcopops" to underage youth
• Updates to social host laws
• Highlights of state, county and local initiatives

To RSVP, please email to or call (847) 543-2854.

Spend a day on the golf course with your fellow LCML members on Thursday, September 20. The annual LCML golf outing will be held at White Deer Run in Vernon Hills and reservations are being taken now. Cost for the full package is $125 per golfer.

Schedule of events

For more information or to register, or call Chris Gentes at (847) 270- 3126.

Illinois Municipal League’s “Fiscal Analysis of the Downstate Police, Fire and IMRF Pension Systems” highlights nearly $3.7 billion in unfunded liabilities for police and fire pensions. Per employee unfunded liability for police is $179,958 and for firefighters is $176,845 compared to $122,969 for teachers (TRS) and $119,687 for State employees (SERS). Local property owners are mandated to cover this shortfall through increased pension tax levies.

Aggregated police pension funds
1987- 2004

• 1987-2000: Overall funding ratio remained relatively stable (around 74%).
• 2000-2004: Funded ratio declined from 74.1% to 62.4% while the unfunded liability in actual dollars increased from $1.2 billion to $2.3 billion.
• 1987-2004: Overall net assets more than tripled from $1.1 billion to $3.7 billion while the accrued liabilities quadrupled from $1.5 billion to $6.0 billion.

Aggregated firefighter pension funds
1987- 2004

• 1987-2000: Overall funding ratio remained relatively stable (around 76%).
• 2000-2004: Funded ratio declined from 76.6% to 65.9% while the unfunded liability in actual dollars increased from $820 million to $1.4 billion.
• 1987-2004: Overall net assets tripled from $854 million to $2.7 billion while the accrued liabilities more than tripled from $1.2 billion to $4.1 billion.

Recommendations

• The General Assembly must not add to the taxpayer burden by passing additional pension increases.
• Public safety employees should fully fund any increases through payroll deductions
• Local governments must actuarially determine pension tax levies that 100% fund these pensions by 2033

Special thanks to Larry Bury, NWMC, for his contributions to this summary.

President
Mayor Timothy Perry, Village of Grayslake
Vice President
President Roger Byrne, Village of Vernon Hills
Secretary
President Elliott Hartstein, Village of Buffalo Grove
Treasurer
Mayor Richard Hill, Village of Round Lake Beach
Sergeant-at-Arms
Mayor Ted Mueller, Village of Hainesville

Directors
Mayor Jeffrey Harger, Village of Libertyville
Mayor Richard H. Hyde, City of Waukegan Suzi Schmidt, Chair, Lake County Board
Jim Hayner, Administrator, Village of Gurnee

Executive Director
Chris Gentes
1937 Municipal Way
Round Lake Beach, IL 60073
(847) 270-3126

www.lakecountyleague.org