A bill being introduced in Springfield would require the General Assembly to cover salaries and benefits for employees of College Illinois, which is facing a large deficit.
The $3.2 million in annual salaries and benefits for those employees for fiscal 2011 are paid out of the returns on the 12-year-old fund's investments.
Jim Tobin is president of Taxpayers United of America, a taxpayer watchdog group. He calls giving any taxpayer money to the ailing fund "dumb."
The fund "shouldn't be bailed out. It'll just encourage more ... improper investment decisions."
The $1.1 billion fund allows residents to purchase tuition at a university or college for a child at the current rate. College Illinois then invests that money with the hope that by the time the child is college-bound, the original investment and profits realized from the investment will cover the cost of tuition.
Questionable investments, the Great Recession and spiking tuition costs have created an unfunded liability in the fund of 30 percent, or $560 million.