CHICAGO—4,352 retired Illinois government retirees received over $100,000 in pension benefits for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, according to pension researcher, Bill Zettler. This is the 9th annual report by Zettler on the top 100 government pension recipients in Illinois.
“The number of retired government employees receiving more than $100,000 a year in retirement pensions rose 20% from 3,597 government employees from fiscal year 2009,” said Zettler. “These pension millionaires are quickly draining the state’s pension funds; the financial burden is clearly unsustainable.”
“Almost all of these multi-millionaire government retirees are educators,” said Jim Tobin, president of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, “The top recipient is Tapas K. Das Gupta, whose annual pension for FY2010 was $402,418. That works out to $33,535 a month.”
“And it doesn’t end there,” said Tobin, “Laura L. Murray holds the spot for highest pension for a public school teacher at $238,882 ($19,907 a month), while Elizabeth Kutska receives the highest pension for a municipal employee with an annual $235,193 ($19,599 a month). St. Senator Arthur Berman receives the highest payout for a legislator with annual pensions totaling $197,503 ($16,459 a month).”
“A state income tax increase is unnecessary. Property tax increases or service cuts are not necessary,” said Tobin. “New government hires should be required to fund their own retirements with 401(k) plans. Ending pensions for new government hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions.”
“In Illinois, if each current state pension fund employee were required to contribute an additional 10% to his or her pension, taxpayers would save over $150 billion over the next 35 years.”
“Requiring public employees to pay for one-half of their health care premiums would save even more – an estimated $230 billion over current projections.”
Click here to view this News Release and Top 100 List as a PDF
”The top recipient is Tapas K. Das Gupta, whose annual pension for FY2010 was $402,418. That works out to $33,535 a month.” Nice.
You say “educators.” The rank and file think “teachers.” Most of these are administrators that are not in a union and had a salary of $200,000+. Then they made sweet heart deals with districts to give them a bonus of $100,000+. No TRS pension will be more than 75% of the average of the best 4 years out of the last 10 years. 4% (new state tax) will mean a lot more to the teacher with a pension of $40,000 than an administrator getting $300,000.
An additional 10% required contribution would mean teachers would pay a total of 21.5% (11.5% required now). Paying 1/2 the medical would mean $5,000 (10% of a $50,000 salary). New state tax 4%. Cook County sales tax 10%. Fed. tax 20% (my guess) for a total of 55%. Then pay off student loans and pay for advanced degrees. I can hear students dropping their teaching majors now. Social Security disability maximum for a family is almost $35,000. I’m going to step in a hole right now. Just what kind of a qualified warm body will be running the classroom in the near future?
In your article you stated that the highest pension receivers were educators. Were these people superintendents? Your article doesn’t state that. Classroom teacher pensions aren’t six figures. You also don’t mention previous IL governors who have pensions at $100,000 or more.
When giving information regarding the amount pensions receive, please be more accurate. Also educators (classroom teachers, principals, and other educational professionals) do pay into the system at 9% of their salary.
One question what is the Dem to Rep. Ratio when collecting high salaries. That should be interesting. Because I know my district gave our old Superintendant 60 sick days in replace of a 2% pay increase. And our district is run by the Republicans. So its not just the Dems that are bad so are the others. I believe its Greed and they figure they will steal it before the others do.
The pension system is broken and it should stop. The Governor should stop any more pensions for employees who have less than the 20 years required to lock a pension in. They all should be given a 401K that the employee can contribute 20 percent of their salary each month to keep the 401K fully funded since the state is unable to fund it. This should become law asap.
Most government workers are thieves. It is a class warfare. Take from the non-government and give to the government. In addition, the pensions are always loaded. They cash in their vacations on the last few years before they retired to boost up thier last few years of salaries. Then, the pension is based upon the last 3 years salaries. That is criminal and was not the original intent of the pension program.
The best idea is to bankrupt the state and clear out the debt that these pensions cost the taxpayers.
Dan,
You must be in the fold of vulture capitalism, or should I suggest organized crime. All of the fancy laws created to steal assets and then bankrupt those businesses is what you are suggesting. All a bunch of thieves.
Shame on you.