Chicago is stepping in to lend cash to its underfunded pensions so they have enough money to avoid asset sales to cover retirement checks as they wait for property taxes to come in after a computer issue delayed collections.
The city’s decision helps lessen the risk that its four pensions would need to sell assets from their portfolios, which include stocks, bonds, real estate and private equity, to raise cash after a glitch in setting up a new county computer system is delaying hundreds of millions of dollars in property tax earmarked for the funds.