More than 80,000 retired government employees will have to start paying for health insurance under legislation Gov. Pat Quinn signed Thursday, ending a major benefit that Illinois had promised to employees.

Recession-plagued states diverted scarce money away from pensions to pay for more immediate concerns, leaving a $757 billion hole in the retirement funds covering millions of public employees, according to a study released this week.

As the recession took its toll many states diverted scarce money away from pension plans to pay for more immediate concerns, and the amount of new costs states will owe the public retirement funds in the decades ahead ballooned to $757 billion, according to a study released Monday.

The governor and legislative leaders say they'll call lawmakers back to Springfield soon for another try at controlling pension costs that contribute to the state's deep budget problems.

The Democrats who run Illinois insist they're serious about controllingpension and health costs, even though it would mean opposing their own constituents and political allies in an election year.

Officials hope to find a way to slow the annual rise in state contributions to government pensions; a 20-percent-larger, $5.1-billion input is needed this year.

Quinn said decades of poor decisions have left the state's pension systems a mess, about $83 billion short of the money they'll need to pay out.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, responding to a dire new report on state finances Monday, said more clearly than ever that he wants schools and universities to help pay for their employees' retirement costs.