In a lengthy editorial today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlights the state's chronic underfunding of its pension obligations.  As budget experts on all sides of the political spectrum have noted, lawmakers have for decades used the pension system as a credit card of sorts -- shorting the state's contributions in order to avoid raising taxes. In doing so, they've helped create a massive structural deficit that has left the government in Springfield on the brink of financial collapse.

The irony, of course, is that state lawmakers -- many of whom like to decry the pension system as bloated -- enjoy very generous retirement packages themselves, unlike the average state employee:

Legislators (most make at least $71,000 a year for their part-time jobs) indeed have a very sweet pension system — after 20 years of government service, they can collect a pension based on 85 percent of their highest state salary, plus 3 percent cost-of-living increases every year after they turn 60. Even retired members of the U.S. Congress, who are pretty good at feathering their own nests, usually receive pensions of no more than $55,000 a year.

The average retired Illinois state worker gets just $17,112 a year. For many of them, that's their sole source of retirement income. More than 75 percent of Illinois workers aren't required to pay Social Security taxes, so they're not eligible for Social Security payments. The pension was supposed to make up for it.

Granted, there are some high-level state employees who receive ridiculously high pension benefits.  But that average benefit -- just over $17,000 -- puts the lie to claims that such packages are common across the system. Read the whole editorial here.