CTPF Budget Questions Loom Before Thursday Board Meeting
The question we have been asking the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) is why pay high and hidden money manager fees when you can simply invest the pension’s money in a low-cost index fund.
This question should be on everybody’s mind when teachers and all state employees hired after 2011 get a far inferior pension payout and threats continue to cut benefits.
A closer look at the CTPF Budget is in order so that people know if their pensions should be sacrificed to Wall Street managers who pocket millions in fees at the expense of those promised a decent retirement.
The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund released its FY 2026 Budget Overview that will be discussed at the upcoming CTPF Board Meeting this Thursday, June 26, 2025.
“Each year we undertake a comprehensive process to analyze our expenses and project our needs for the following year,” the 2026 Budget Presentation stated.
Here is where everyone should take pause and read carefully:
“FY 2026 Budget for administration and investment expenses totals $86.4 million, a 3.7% increase over the FY 2025 budget of $83.3 million. Staff has worked to cut expenses whenever possible.”
Yup, that’s the high manager fees being paid out to poor managers like Ariel who lose the Fund more and more money over the years on account of compound interest where the losses continually increase. Even though this money manager has been on the CTPF Watchlist for over 20 years, they keep getting rehired. Think of an unsatisfactory teacher getting rehired at the same school year after year after year!
According to the Budget presentation, CTPF approved for FY (Fiscal Year) 2025 for Professional services $59,479,120 while estimating the total expenditure of $58,398,710. The investment costs (manager fees) increased from $53,760,820 in 2025, to $54,702,270, for an increase of $941,450.
Professional Services include election expenses, printing and postage, audit services and legal fees, investment custodian and management fees, and IT security services. The investment custodian and management fees is what anyone concerned about the Pension Fund’s solvency should pay careful attention to.
“A relatively modest increase in professional services is due to increased investment management fees which are mostly offset by decreases in other departments. The increase in investment management fees reflects the expectation that the portfolio net asset value will increase, causing fees to increase proportionately,” CTPF stated.
CTPF said the largest dollar increase in the budget is for staff health insurance, which reflects significantly increased premiums. They estimated a total expenditure of $18,485,520 for Personnel, which is defined as salaries, overtime, annual increase/COLA, internships, employee benefits, and employer-paid payroll taxes.
I ask these questions because CTPF operates like things are getting better for all of us. How so? They decided to continue building out their offices even though it is questionable how many employees still work from home.
The Personnel budget included a 2% performance-based increase and the 3% COLA. A majority of the Trustees revised the COLA formula in 2023 to reflect a standard 3% COLA replacing the Social Security inflation Rate.
Again, you need to ask yourself - are pensions getting better? Are retired people getting all their benefits, and the Tier 2 people gonna get something better than the minimum retirement of Social Security.
I ask these questions because CTPF operates like things are getting better for all of us. How so? They decided to continue building out their offices even though it is questionable how many employees still work from home.
The Fund stated a $150K budget was added in 2026 for construction on the 30th floor office expansion, and an additional $250k for furniture. “These are high-end estimates and may be adjusted prior to the June 2025 Board meeting, pending ongoing negotiations.”
The Capital expense report stated that $20k was approved for 2025, but the proposal for 2026 was for a whopping $425,000 for a $405,000 increase resulting in a 2,025 percent increase to build more and fancier offices. According to CTPF, Capital is “construction or maintenance requests that will improve or alter the CTPF offices.”
The budget line items on conferences under education and training stayed the same - no increase or decrease.
Still, it can be upsetting to the majority of Chicago Public School teachers and Chicago Teacher Union members who are now under the Tier 2 pension where they have to wait until 67 to retire, and see current CTPF Trustees go on extended conferences in warm and exotic locales, living it up.
A recent report documented that the following CORE Teacher Trustees Jeffery Blackwell, Jacquelyn Price Ward and Quentin Washington had a 4 day hotel bill of $1,480.40 each at the NCTR Conference in Georgia from October 8, 2024 thru October 11, 2024. President Blackwell who was injured and is recovering, wined and dined to the tune of $233.09.
As for the rest of us? Let them eat cake.
