required pension contributions last year. only nine. those are the states that have set aside less than 60% of the required pension contributions. $3.5 billion, detroit city manager kevyn orr estimates that s how much of the city s pension liability are unfunded making it a fifth of the city s debt. 36%, that s how much of its pension obligations the city of chicago funded last year. $1 trillion and possibly more is how much u.s., state and municipal are underfunded. the pension problem is very real. coming up, why you should be concerned even if you are decades away from retirement. cae and man, you know how that feels. copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. you know, spiriva helps me breathe easier.
pensions that is affect afc being the city is playing out and lots of other places in the country. has an enormous pension problem looming on the state of horizon, chicago does and so do many other big cities. detroit and resolution to this pension problem, i think, will serve as an example to other cities grappling with the balance of interest between the creditors on one side and the retirees on the other. you say an extreme example. we talked about these stats in rents weeks but bear repeating. detroit is $18 billion in debt. the average police response time for high priority calls is almost an hour. half the parks have been closed since 2008. 40% of street lights don t work. it does kind of beg the question why would anybody want to run for mayor? yeah. that s a good question. i mean, i think right now the two candidates for mayor are both playing their respective strong cards.
approximately another $3.5 million is unfunded pensions. only $2 million roughly of that $12 billion or so is related to unsecured bond debt, the vast majority of it has to do with pensions and health care. why not seek a bailout? new york city in the 70s got a bailout from the federal government. why not try to seek a bailout from the state or the federal government? that was a different time, first of all. these are problems of detroit s own making. if we go back and look at the jen sus of these problems, 2005, 2006, the city borrowed $1.5 billion. that would secure the pension problem back then. 2009, the city defaulted on obligations, pledging the casino revenue to support our defaults. and then 2011, we had this consent agreement. we ve dug this hole of our own making.
from a financial standpoint. i think other states and communities are facing this. frankly, the national government s facing it. it s going to be an interesting conversation that i think you talk to mayors. doesn t matter their party. you talk to governors. they whisper about this pension problem. they don t want to talk about it publicly. chicago s another place, you know, illinois. they re on the edge. we ve had other cities come right up to the brink or go other. if you re a mayor you have to balance your budget. you can t eject ideology in everything. can take a lesson from mayors who have to be about compromise and getting it done and not about ideology and partisan. ah, look at this. the irony is, house republicans the only one who offered up a budget that actually balances in ten years and pays off the debt. there wasn t an alternative presents by the democrats thatter balances fully in ten years. i want to talk about this larger issue. about what is 2014 going to
ask whether there will be enough in the fund when they are ready to retire. the problem is the squeeze. fan it is tick. that was squeezey the pension python the cartoon character introduced by the office of illinois governor pat quinn to raise public awareness about the state s growing pension problem. they owe more than they have in the coffers. legislate tours failed to enact any meaningful reform. this past weekend moody investor as service decided to downgrade to the lowest in the nation. just ahead in california they warn of a still negative outlook. all of this you may think i don t live in illinois it s not my problem. people in chicago can deal with this. not so fast. we are hearing reports in the