Adams County Crushed by Government Pensions

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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).