"Given all the headlines about Illinois' seemingly endless struggle to reform its pensions ... the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), the state's second-largest public pension, is a model of fiscal responsibility. What distinguishes the IMRF from Illinois' other three statewide plans, which are struggling, is that all 2,969 governments that participate in it are required to pay 100 percent of their annual required contribution. As a result, the IMRF has remained more than 80 percent funded, even after the investment losses that public and private plans suffered from the 2008 recession."