SPRINGFIELD–A new report by pension researcher Bill Zettler reveals that many Sangamon County retired government employees receive lavish, gold-plated pensions that far exceed average annual wages of workers in the private sector.
“These government-employee pensions are bankrupting the state pension funds,” said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI). “That’s the real reason Gov. Patrick Quinn (D) wants to raise the state personal income tax up to 67%. He wants to pump taxpayer dollars into the state’s floundering pension programs.”
You can watch the video from NBC WAND TV’s coverage of the press conference below. NTUI has no control over the content, including advertising.
“Those receiving the largest annual pensions are retired government-school educators,” said Tobin. “Sangamon County’s retired public school teachers in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) are really raking it in. The largest annual TRS pension goes to Robert C. Hill, formerly of Springfield SD 186, whose annual pension is $143,140 — $11,928 a month. The second-highest TRS annual pension goes to Richard J. Voltz, formerly of Ball Chatham CUSD 5, who received $135,178 a year. That’s $11,265 a month.”
“The largest pension of former university employees in Sangamon County goes to Craig Bazzani, formerly of the University of Illinois, who received an annual pension of $250,346 — an astounding $20,862 a month. The second largest annual pension goes to Stephen Rugg, also formerly of the University of Illinois, who received an annual pension of $229,573 — $19,131 a month.”
“With an average annual wage of $48,300 for Sangamon County, the county’s residents are stagnating while some of these retired government employees are well on their way to becoming pension millionaires.”
“These retired government employees are sucking the system dry. But there is no need to raise the state income tax or cut government services. Three crucial reforms can save the system and spare Illinois taxpayers.”
“New government hires should be required to fund their own retirements with social security and 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 Illinois public employees to pay for one-half of their health care premiums would save even more – an estimated $230 billion over current projections.”
Click the image below to view Sangamon County’s top government teacher pensions.
Click here to view Sangamon County’s top College pensions.
