Third, underfunded pension and other postretirement benefits account for a majority of the debt of these "sinkhole cities." In New York City, 64% of the total debt is due to pension and other retirement promises. In Chicago, that's 69%; Philly, 63%; Honolulu, 80%; and San Francisco, 65%. And not all of these are cases such as Chicago's, with its horrifically low funded ratio of 28%. San Francisco, for example, nominally has a funded ratio of 87%, according to its most recent actuarial report, with an unfunded amount of $3.3 billion. However, that figure is as of July 1, 2017, TIA reports, and the true amount of unfunded pension liability is $5.0 billion, along with $4.2 billion in unfunded retiree healthcare; Chicago, by comparison, has comparatively little unfunded retiree medical liability.
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