TUA’s video, Magnum TI and the Case of Illinois’ Fiscal Crisis, was featured on Publius Forum.
View release as a PDF
Chicago – Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today released a video with an important message for voters: vote out of office those Springfield Democrats responsible for the huge 67% personal income tax increase and end Michael Madigan’s reign as House Majority Leader.
“Boss Madigan has been speaker of the Illinois House for nearly 30 years ‘and has more power than Mike Tyson’s left hook’, so who is really to blame for our bleak financial state?” asks Jim Tobin, president of TUA.
“TUA has produced this video to remind voters exactly who the problem is here in Illinois. The hero of our story, Magnum TI, solves the mystery of how to reform Illinois. In this ‘film noir’, Magnum TI calls for the neutralization of ‘Big Cheese Madigan’ by making him the house minority leader.”
“If we don’t throw enough Democrats out of office to make Speaker Madigan the Minority Leader, the 67% temporary personal income tax increase will become permanent, and will be followed by even more tax increases.”
“Illinois is hemorrhaging, 18 jobs per hour and one taxpayer every minute, and we need to stop the bleeding with an immediate change in leadership.”
“We are sending this video to every Illinois member and press contact to spread the message: ‘Throw the bums out.’ Chicago Machine Boss Madigan led us to financial devastation and we intend to hold him and his cronies accountable.”
“But nobody tells the story better than our very own, Magnum TI. Watch him in action!”
View release as a PDF
Quincy—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today released the results of a new pension study for the Quincy municipal government employees, Adams County government employees and Adams County government teachers.
“Illinois lawmakers have only flirted with reforms of the government pension system,” stated Jim Tobin, president of TUA. “Illinois is in just about the worst financial shape and yet taxpayers are still expected to pour their hard earned money into a failed system.”
“While residents across Adams County face crushing tax increases, falling home values, rising unemployment, and a painfully slow economic recovery, government employees continue to receive stunning pensions largely funded by taxpayers who will never collect more than about $22,000 a year from Social Security.”
“Chicago Machine Boss, Michael Madigan, and the Democrats have been draining taxpayers in Quincy and all across the state for the last 30 years without addressing the number one budget problem: outrageously lavish, government employee pensions. Across the country, millions of bureaucrats are being paid billions, to do absolutely nothing!”
“The purpose of our study is to put some perspective around individual pensions, to put them in terms to which the average taxpayer can relate. Area taxpayers, whose average income is $39,000, need to know how much Quincy’s government retirees are being paid not to work and the astronomical accumulation of those payments over an average lifetime.”
Tobin continued, “For example, Nicholas N. Schildt, retired from government school district 172 and collected a 2012 pension of $194,663. His starting pension, when he retired, was $153,532. He has received more than the average annual wage for this area in cost of living adjustments alone. His estimated lifetime pension payout is stunning $6.9 million, of which he only contributed 2.4%.*”
“Richard A. Klusmeyer, retired from the Adams County government, has an annual pension of $80,598, with a staggering estimated lifetime payout of $2,077,462.* ”
“Retired Quincy municipal government employee, Donald J. Kulek, has a lifetime estimated pension payout of $2,553,495*, with an annual pension of $60,465.”
View pension amounts below:
- Quincy Municipal Government Employees Top 10 Pensions
- Adams County Government School Employees Top 50 Salaries
- Adams County Government Teachers Top 50 Pensions
- Adams County Government School Administrators Top Salaries
- Adams County Government Employees Top 10 Pensions
“Illinois’ government pensions are in serious trouble with no end in sight. Government employees should be paid a fair wage for the work they do today so they can save for their own retirement. Replacing defined benefit pensions for all new government hires with social security and 401(k)s would eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions.”
“The only way taxpayers will get relief from the tax-raisers who ‘temporarily’ increased our income tax by 67% is to throw all the Democrats out of Springfield and make Madigan the house minority leader,” added Tobin. “If we don’t, taxes will go even higher and the pension system will collapse anyway. It’s mathematically impossible to tax your way out of this problem. Illinois has more than 6,700 retirees collecting more than $100,000; in about 8 years, that will be over 25,000 six figure pensioners.”
*Lifetime estimated pension payout assumes life expectancy of 85 (IRS Form 590).
