Chicago transit pension fund in trouble

Stacy Warden of the Chi-town Daily News investigated questionable policies in the Chicago Transportation Authority's pension fund, raising questions about CTA's claim that state funding policies had caused its current financial crisis. "Taking the first steps toward repairing the agency's pension fund, along with paying rapidly increasing employee wages and health care costs, will cost the CTA $101.4 million this year, accounting for 92 percent of the CTA budget gap. In 1994 the CTA pension fund was found to be robust enough to allow for reduced contributions, but a combination of reduced revenues, early retirement benefits and some of the highest wages in country have strained the system.