SPRINGFIELD, Ill. • Making local school districts pay the employers' portion of teacher retirement benefits could save more than $1.3 billion a year for Illinois' stressed state treasury. It also could mean financial ruin for some school districts, school administrators say.

Gov. Pat Quinn, with tentative nods from Democratic legislative leaders, has expressed support for the state shifting its obligation to local districts. It would free up money needed to pay down a huge backlog of bills and to catch up with a decades-long shortchanging of public pension systems.

Local schools employ teachers, the thinking goes, so why shouldn't schools pay the employer's portion of their instructors' retirement benefits?

They shouldn't for many reasons, local school authorities argue. For one, many districts already are in dire financial condition. Teachers have been laid off, programs are getting cut, and schools are already awaiting $752 million in funding the state is behind in paying — $88 million is more than three months late.

"That would kill school districts, at least most districts. For us, we're living paycheck to paycheck," said Tony Sanders, chief of staff for Elgin School District U-46, the state's largest district outside Chicago. Sanders said the state owes it $12 million for this school year. "There is no magic pool of dollars waiting for us to swim in."

Other options aren't much brighter. For example, seeking property tax increases to cover the cost presents its own problems, both legal and political. School districts in 40 counties are restricted in the amount of taxes they can collect, so they would at least need voter approval to collect more revenue.

Philosophically, school officials are asking whether teachers should be considered local employees when the state determines their benefits. The Teachers Retirement System, which handles pensions for 370,000 active, inactive and retired teachers, has determined that changes in state law to enhance pension benefits have added $2 billion to the system's unfunded liability since 1996.

Quinn, who said Friday there will be a "pension working group" to examine the issue, added that only 22 percent of the state's pension contributions are for state employees.

"The remainder is for nonstate employees: people who work for school districts and universities," Quinn said.

He pointed out that the city of Chicago pays the employers' portion for its schools but didn't mention that city officials persuaded the Legislature to let them slide on more than $1 billion owed the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund through 2013, when they said they couldn't pay.

It costs about $850 million a year to maintain the Teachers Retirement System, which covers public school teachers outside Chicago, and about $468 million to run the State Universities Retirement System, according to Quinn's budget office.