In nearly a decade as executive director of the $13.3 billion State Universities Retirement System of Illinois, James Hacking got used to politicians’ cutting deals that shortchanged the pension plan. But in late May he hit his breaking point: To balance a fiscal deficit of $1.2 billion, Illinois lawmakers approved a budget that over the next two years would divert $2.2 billion owed to the state’s five pension systems, including the university plan, which already faced a $6.9 billion shortfall and had a funding ratio of only 66 percent.
So after nine years in Champaign, Hacking, 59, is pulling up his roots and heading to the Sun Belt. Late this month he will become head of Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, based in Phoenix.
“The challenge isn’t going to change,” says Hacking of the situation in Illinois. “It’s just going to get worse. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.”
In Phoenix he’ll be running a plan that, at $5.5 billion in assets and about 40 employees, is less than half the size of the Illinois university system. But the Arizona plan is in much sounder financial shape: As of June 30, 2004, its assets were equal to 92 percent of its liabilities.
“The size of the system doesn’t matter all that much,” Hacking says. “I’m looking for a career-diversifying challenge.”
