Shawano Leader | Group accuses Madsen of withholding public records

By on August 23, 2013   /   Press, Wisconsin Press  
Findings from TUA’s pension project on Shawano County, Wisconsin, are featured in this story from the Shawano Leader.
shawanoleaderThe leader of a Chicago-based organization claims Shawano County Administrative Coordinator Tom Madsen is withholding public records. Madsen says a spam filter is to blame.
Jim Tobin, president of the Taxpayers United Alliance (TUA), said in a news conference this week that Madsen has engaged in a series of stalls following the organization’s request for county employee salary and pension information.
“Thomas Madsen of the Shawano County administrative office has refused to provide the salaries for county employees in a series of stalls and excuses, designed to make us give up,” Tobin said Monday at the Shawano School District annual meeting.
Madsen initially said Tobin’s claims were “patently false,” but has since blamed the county’s spam filter for blocking some of the group’s emails.
“I think it’s grandstanding,” Madsen said Wednesday. “He picked the meeting of the Shawano School Board (to hold a news conference), so he had a captive audience. He decided he was going to throw a match on a can of gas.”
Madsen said he found out later Wednesday that the email servers had tagged several of the TUA emails as spam and blocked them. He said on Thursday the county’s technicians have fixed the problem.
The information Tobin seeks was to have been part of a report TUA released Monday showing public employee salaries and benefits, along with estimates on what they would earn from their pensions once they retire. Tobin released the group’s assumptions on employee pensions for the city of Shawano and the Shawano School District at the same news conference.
Both TUA and the county provided emails between Madsen and TUA’s executive director, Rae Ann McNeilly, that show the process started with a phone call on July 7 by McNeilly requesting all full-time employees’ names, titles, departments they work in and wages for 2012.
Madsen sent an email to McNeilly on July 8 saying that the county would furnish what she had requested, but it would cost the county an estimated $100 to compile the information.
“This is just an estimate,” Madsen wrote. “You will be billed for the actual time it takes to put together the report with the information requested.”
In TUA’s documents furnished to the Leader, McNeilly sent a reply dated July 9 that said, “Please proceed with the open records request. Please advise of the fee and we will forward a check.”
Madsen claimed he did not receive that email or any further correspondence from McNeilly until Aug. 12, when she sent an email asking if Madsen had received the July 9 email and again authorizing that TUA be billed for the cost.
An email from Madsen, also dated Aug. 12, to McNeilly stated that he did not receive her July 9 response, and that he had let the matter go. He again asked if the terms were acceptable and when the county could expect payment, after which he would get the information to her “as soon as possible.”
McNeilly sent a reply on Aug. 13 that she had said the terms were acceptable multiple times and had been anticipating a bill with the final costs.
“If you are now telling me that you will not proceed until a payment has been received, then make that clear with a clear final cost amount, and a remittance process, and quit stalling,” McNeilly wrote. “Do you have the report ready? I would be happy to phone a credit card payment right now or us mail a check, but I would expect in good faith, and having my authorization in writing, 4 times now, that you would provide the data immediately and anticipate receipt of our check.”
Madsen said Wednesday that he never received McNeilly’s Aug. 13 email and was unaware of it until the Leader asked him about it.
After officials checked the spam filter, Madsen sent an email to TUA apologizing for the delays and saying the county would prepare the information requested.
“We will prepare the information and then send an invoice for the cost to prepare. As soon as we receive payment, we will release the information to you,” Madsen wrote. “I apologize for the mix-up even though it appears to have been out of anyone’s control.”
McNeilly told the Leader on Thursday that she hoped Madsen’s statement was genuine, but noted that TUA had previous difficulties getting the same information two years ago, when Frank Pascarella was administrative coordinator.
“I will hope that he’s being forthcoming, and we will finish the deal,” McNeilly said. “If we have to jump through hoops, that’s what we do. That’s what I’m prepared to do. That’s why we’re successful; we don’t back down.”
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Wisconsin Reporter | Tax avenger takes message to small-town WI

By on August 22, 2013   /   Press, Wisconsin Press  

Findings from TUA’s pension project on Shawano County, Wisconsin, are featured in this story from the Wisconsin Reporter.
taxavengerBy Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter
SHAWANO — Jim Tobin is frustrated, and he’ll tell you so.
“It’s been so difficult getting the information from these lazy … bureaucrats,” Tobin said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Tobin is president of Taxpayers United of America, which organizes and mobilizes taxpayers to defeat tax increases. TUA is based in Chicago, where Tobin lives and works.
Thomas Madsen is Shawano County’s administrative coordinator, and he handles open-records requests.
The information Tobin wants — Shawano County salary data — and his struggles to get it underscore one of  his big battles in Wisconsin — exposing the costs of government employees and bringing transparency to government pension data.
That battle, in turn, is part of Tobin’s war — fight off taxes wherever politicians want to raise them.
Tobin describes himself as a “professional tax-fighter,” throwing down, so to speak, Monday evening at the Shawano school board annual budget meeting.
Tobin owns property and pays property taxes in Shawano.
“I think it’s unfair these taxpayer groups take on hard-working government employees when there’s so much other wasteful government spending,” Madsen said.
Tobin insists he’s just following the money.
“The main reason we were there (Monday) night was to let people know that 80 percent of their taxes goes toward salaries and pensions,” he said. “A system that pays so many millions of dollars to people who do absolutely nothing is unsustainable.”
Fighting for the data
Outside the gym, Tobin distributed lists of the 50 highest paid school district employees and the 30 highest paid municipal government workers .
But what about the county? Tobin would like to know, too.
Madsen told Wisconsin Reporter he’s happy to process the request, as soon as TUA sends a check for $100. Usually the county fulfills requests and then bills for payment, but he said it was “burned by a taxpayer group before, and we’re not going to be burned a second time.” Under state law, the county can require a prepayment of fees.
As of Wednesday, Madsen said, he hasn’t received a check.
But here’s what the city and school district data show:

  • Only four of the 80 employees listed earned less than $37,686, the median household income in Shawano, according to U.S. Census data.
  • Each of the top 50 earners at the Shawano school district took home more than Tobin’s $53,000 TUA salary, as revealed by TUA’s 2011 Form 990, the latest public data available.
  • According to TUA’s estimates, all but five of those 80 government employees will take home more than $1 million in pension payouts after they retire.

Tobin’s numbers, though, are probably inflated — in some cases severely so — because they assume the maximum possible pension payouts under the Wisconsin Retirement System and pad that figure with Social Security benefits.
But, again, Tobin would be happy to use actual retirement system data, if he could get it.
Personal pension information is considered confidential under Wisconsin Statute 40.07, and is “never a public record.”
In Illinois, where pension data is public information, 9,900 government retirees take home more than $100,000 a year in pension payments, according to TUA.
“Why isn’t the information public (in Wisconsin)?” Tobin asked. “ What are the politicians trying to hide?”
Professional Tax-fighter
Thirty-seven years ago, Tobin, a former economics professor at Elmhurst College in Illinois, founded National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
That became TUA in 2011 and, according to its founder, has more than 30,000 current and past members.
He said he worked at the Federal Reserve for nine years.
“While I was still at the Fed, I started the property tax strike in Cook County. I started working evenings spreading the seeds of rebellion,” Tobin said.
He persuaded thousands of people to not pay Cook County property taxes in 1977, which resulted in a massive tax strike that garnered national media attention. The New York Times reported that Tobin led the charge of fed-up taxpayers after property taxes increased for many homeowners 40 percent to 300 percent in one year.
Cook County taxpayers eventually paid their property taxes, but not until bureaucrats rolled back the rate.
Tobin boasts his organization helped defeat 198 referendums on property tax increases and 200 home rule attempts in Illinois.
In 2011, TUA expanded to a national focus. The organization works more now to expose the highest paid government worker’s salaries and pensions and advocate for pension reform, whereas it previously focused on fighting off property tax hikes.
Wisconsin Reporter long has been analyzing the state’s pension system, which has a sterling reputation for being among the best funded and most flexible systems in the country. These descriptors are both true and misleading.
The system is 100 percent funded based on government accounting standards, which economists say doesn’t match economic theory – that future liabilities of promised benefits should reflect the safest rates of return. The reason is that if the market crashes and the pension fund tanks, as it did in 2008, taxpayers will still be on the hook to pay those benefits.
In Wisconsin, the pension system’s supporters say the system is flexible enough to handle those losses. When the market tanks, it takes back the gains older retirees made in the good years. The result is recent retirees earn a full pension, while older retirees live on their pre-inflation rate payouts. It’s like robbing grandpa to pay dad.
Tobin advocates a 401(k) style pension for government employees, in which contributions are guaranteed, but not returns.
“The point I was trying to make (Monday) is, and maybe I didn’t do a good enough job, if they don’t support reforms, they will get hurt,” Tobin said. “Bankruptcies will come here to Wisconsin after they come to Illinois. I think something that helped us is the Detroit fiasco. They’re bankrupt, government retirees are going to get 10 to 20 cents on the dollar. As that kind of thing continues around the country, more and more people will learn we need to shape up.”
Hitting home
On Monday night, Tobin brought the fight to Shawano, population about 9,300.
Tobin said Wisconsin taxpayers will pay “millions for people who do nothing,” referring to the “pensioneers.”
John Granchay, a government retiree and former school board member, confronted Tobin, saying he worked hard for his pension.
“I’m still working,” Tobin answered. “I’m going to have to work until I drop to pay your pensions.”
“What did you do for a living that you earned your pension?” Granchay asked.
“I don’t have a pension,” Tobin said. “Don’t you get it? People in the private sector don’t have pensions anymore.”
One state employee brought Tobin’s Shawano-riverfront house property tax records to the meeting to expose what he called the tax-fighter’s “true” motive, an ax-to-grind with the city.
“Our property taxes here went up from $4,000 to $6,700 in one year. The schools went crazy with tax increases.”
Much like the events leading up to the Chicago tax revolt, his riverfront property was reassessed at a higher value, causing his taxes to jump.
Tobin organizes strikes and demonstrations, distributes fliers opposing all referendums to increase property taxes. He takes on politicians and government employees – whom he calls “bloodsuckers” and “special interests,” respectively.
“They don’t like it when we release the salaries. They don’t want folks to know who’s getting the stolen money,” Tobin said. “They expect us to keep working and working and paying and not complaining. They were upset (Monday) night – ‘Oh, you’re complaining, you’re so negative.’ Well, of course I am. (They’re) robbing us blind.”
The Shawano school board passed the preliminary budget Monday night with an expected tax levy for the 2013-14 school year of $12.93 million, a 1.5 percent increase from the 2012-13 school year.
Teachers and other staff will receive a 2.3 percent pay raise. The district has not yet decided on pay raises for administrators.
“A few years ago, I was up here 10 weeks and thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll be retiring soon,” Tobin said. “But there’s just too much to do. I’ll fight taxes at least another five years full-time. After that I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t have a million-dollar pension.”

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Shawano City and County Gov. Bureaucrats Work Feverishly to Hide from Taxpayers

By on August 19, 2013   /   Latest, News Releases, Pension Reform, Wisconsin  

Shawano—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today released the results of its study of the Shawano County, Shawano Municipal, and Shawano government school employees.
“The State of Wisconsin refuses to release actual pension payments in an effort to hide the huge subsidies from taxpayers. We can’t let them get away with that so we estimate the pensions for current government employees, giving taxpayers an idea of what their ‘public servants’ get paid not to work,” stated Jim Tobin, president of TUA.
“The Shawano School Board embarks on its annual meeting, better known as a pep rally for their government employee supporters. As they will shortly present their budgets, you can expect to find holes and unanswered questions regarding exactly how approximately 75% to 80% of your property tax dollars are being spent.”
“This is precisely why we are here now, releasing the salaries and pension estimates for the Shawano government school employees. If you recall, last year, the board intended to increase property taxes to make up for the loss of revenue from the state. In a series of planned procedural moves, they prevented taxpayers from debating the issue at all. They railroaded us into doing what they wanted to preserve their benefits. It is important for you to know how much each of these bureaucrats receives and how much they will cost the taxpayers when they retire with their million-dollar pensions.”
“Even with the recent, positive reforms implemented in Wisconsin, there is a long way to go to fix the pension problem here in Wisconsin. Looking at the top salaries in Shawano and estimating pensions for those employees, it is easy to see that a system that pays so many millions of dollars to people who do absolutely nothing is unsustainable. About 80% of local taxes go to pay salaries and benefits of government employees. As more retirees have to be paid out of that 80%, less money is available to pay current employees for the services we need today.”
“Wisconsin, like all state pension systems, gets away with very loose standards in calculating their pension system’s health. Unlike pensions in the private sector, government pension fund assets are over-stated. But when new accounting standards go into effect next year, even Wisconsin which boasts a fully-funded pension system, will be underfunded by billions of dollars.”
“But typical taxpayers can’t even fathom billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. But when the average taxpayer sees the disparity between the average Shawano wage of about $29,000 per year with 7.5% unemployment and the salaries and pensions of the government bureaucrats they fund, there is no confusion over why government pay and benefits are unsustainable.”

“Todd Carlson, who will run at least portions of the school board meeting as the board’s president, has a salary of $135,294*. That salary reflects about a 5.7% increase since our last study here in Shawano. On top of that, he gets about $38,164 in fringe benefits – each year. His estimated annual pension including Social Security benefits, is $123,662** and his estimated lifetime payout is a stunning $2,596,895***.”
“Gary Cumberland, another Shawano government school administrator, gets an annual salary of $110,897 plus $34,538 in fringe benefits. His estimated lifetime pension payout including Social Security benefits is a cool $2,184,464 based on his estimated combined annual pension and Social Security payments of  $104,022.”
“While our pension estimates are a very useful education tool, I encourage Shawano and all Wisconsin taxpayers to demand the right to review pension payments, especially since taxpayers, until the recent changes, have funded nearly 100% of the pensions and healthcare premiums on behalf of government employees. I have written letters to Governor Walker and every member of the state legislature, urging them to stop hiding pension payments from taxpayer review.”
“Lawmakers aren’t even willing to answer questions about the secrecy surrounding pension payments. Wisconsin Reporter Bureau Chief, Matt Kittle said about the statute:
‘Wisconsin Reporter on Tuesday attempted to contact several state lawmakers asking why Wisconsin keeps pension information private while so many other states shine a light. None responded to the question as of this post.’
So not only are they hiding behind a secrecy law, they are hiding from the press to even answer to the public.”
“And here in Shawano County, a government bureaucrat has stalled our legal request for salary information for over a month. Thomas Madsen of the Shawano County administrative office has refused to provide the salaries for county employees in a series of stalls and excuses, designed to make us give up. Mr. Madsen assumed we would get frustrated and go away. We did not. Please give Mr. Madsen a call (715-526-4641, thomas.madsen@co.shawano.wi.us) and let him know what you think about his blatant attempts to conceal the salaries that you, the taxpayers, are funding.”

“Wisconsin needs not only to be more transparent, but to continue with pension reforms that will bring its government employee benefits in line with those of the private sector. Specifically, government pensions need to be replaced with 401k-style retirement savings accounts where taxpayer contributions are made when the conditions allow it. Government employees need to increase their contributions to match the level of the private sector, and government retirees and employees need to pay for at least half of their health-care premiums.”
*Gross wages provided by government administrator and may include overtime or PTO that would not be eligible for pension calculation.
**Annual Pension Estimate Assumptions:
1. Assumes employee retires one year from now and this salary would be the second to last salary.
2. Assumes 41 or more years of employment, retirement age is 65, and pension is 70%
3. Plus Social Security assuming 4% salary increases over last 35 years.
***Lifetime Pension Estimate uses IRS Life Expectancy Table (Form 590) at age 65 = 21 years

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