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CHICAGO—The Chicago Police Sergeants’ Association is to be commended for its realistic appraisal of the crisis in state and local pensions, and for its sensible decision to embrace a pension-reform deal with the City of Chicago, according to the president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).
“Other unions such as the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are asking for ridiculous raises in this gloomy economy,” said Jim Tobin, TUA president. “For FOP President Mike Shields to ask for a 12% pay increase over two years from taxpayers in this economy is outrageous and insulting.”
“The state and local pension plans are going broke, and interim measures such as those accepted by the Sergeants union help.”
“Their pension-reform agreements are a big step in the right direction: Increasing retirement age; increasing employee pension contributions from 9% to 12%; eliminating cost-of-living (COLA) increases every other year and capping them; increasing health-care contributions for new retirees.”
“The unfunded obligations in state and local government-pension funds are so huge that you can’t tax your way to solvency. If the government unions want to receive any pensions, they will need to engage in serious negotiations with their employers, and will need to have their pensions restructured. If they don’t, they will find themselves without any pensions at all when the plans go broke.”
Hundreds of Bloomington – Normal Government Retirees Become Pension Millionaires at Taxpayer Expense
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Bloomington—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today released the results of a new pension study of the employees of the Cities of Bloomington and Normal, McLean County, McLean County government schools, and Illinois State University.
“Illinois lawmakers continue their abuse of taxpayers by ignoring the number one budgetary problem in the state,” stated Jim Tobin, president of TUA. “Illinois is in horrible financial shape, and yet taxpayers are still expected to pour their hard earned money into a failed government pension system.”
“While residents across McLean County face crushing tax increases, falling home values, high unemployment, and a painfully slow economic recovery, government employees continue to receive stunning pensions largely funded by taxpayers who, on average, collect only $14,800 a year from Social Security.”
“Illinois’ government bureaucrats have been draining taxpayers in McLean County and all across the state for the last 30 years, trading gold-plated pension benefits for the votes they need to stay in power. Across the country, millions of bureaucrats are being paid trillions, to do absolutely nothing! With their 3%, compounded cost of living adjustments (COLA), Illinois’ government retirees double their pensions after only 24 years of retirement.”
“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 household income is $59,000, need to know how much local government retirees are being paid not to work and the astronomical accumulation of those payments over an average lifetime.”
“For example, Robert S. Nielson retired from Bloomington SD 87 at the ripe old age of 58 and collects an annual pension of $158,930. His estimated lifetime pension payout is a stunning $6,152,074*, 3.7% of which was his contribution.”
“At only 53 years of age, Thomas A. Hamilton retired from the City of Bloomington and has an annual pension of $119,696, with a staggering estimated lifetime payout of $5,750,607*. His contribution of the estimated lifetime payout would be only 1.8%.”
“Retired Normal government employee, John M. Callahan, has an incredible lifetime estimated pension payout of $3,296,426*, 2.9% of which he contributed, with an annual pension of $93,812, retiring at only 58.”
View pension amounts below:
- Bloomington Municipal Government Top Pensions
- Normal Municipal Government Top Pensions
- McLean County Government Teachers’ Top Pensions
- McLean County Government Top Pensions
- Illinois State University Top 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.”
“Without sweeping and immediate reform, Illinois’ pension system will collapse. Reform must include raising retirement age to 67, increasing employee contributions by 10%, increasing healthcare contributions to 50%, eliminating all COLA’s, and replacing the defined benefit system with a defined contribution system for all new hires. 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 2020, that will be over 25,000 six figure pensioners.”
*Lifetime estimated pension payout includes 3% compounded COLA and assumes life expectancy of 85 (IRS Form 590).
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CHICAGO—Illinois politicians and government union bosses are trying to deflect criticism of their lavish, gold-plated pensions by throwing out a deceptive “average” pension figure of $30,000, according to the president of one of the country’s largest taxpayer organizations
“The government unions are desperate to confuse taxpayers and the news media,” said Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA). “They claim that the ‘excessive, multimillion dollar pensions’ we publish are misleading because the ‘average’ government pension in the state’s pension system is much lower. They keep throwing out $30,000 as the ‘average’ government pension which is intentionally misleading.”
“By far the largest state pension system is the Teacher’s Retirement System. The estimated average pension for 2010 was $65,000, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. Even TRS states the average pension as $48,216.”
“The full pension of a teacher in Illinois (outside of the Chicago Public School system) is 75% of the average salary in the four highest consecutive years in the last 10 years of teaching. This is a very generous way to determine an employee’s pension. Then there are the 3% per year cost-of-living increases on top of that every year which double annual pensions after only 24 years.”
“These low averages that they like to throw around include all part-time employee pensions as well as all of the small pensions of those who didn’t stay in the employment of the participating government for very long. Even at the understated $30,000, that is more than twice as much as the average Social Security pension.”
“According to Crain’s, only about 3% of private sector employees get defined benefit pensions comparable to the government employee pensions. So, that means about 97% of workers retiring from the private sector will get the average Social Security pension of only $14,800 and Medicare, which requires additional out of pocket expense for supplemental coverage. Government employees enjoy premium healthcare coverage before and after they are retired that does not require any supplementation and at no expense to them.”
“But these bureaucrats aren’t fooling anyone any more. Everyone knows, thanks to groups like us exposing the government pension scam, that all of the money from the recent 67% increase in the state personal income tax is being poured into the floundering state pension funds, and they are still under water.”
“The State of Illinois’ credit rating was just downgraded, making Illinois the state with the worst credit rating in the country. Whether the average government pension is $30,000 or $100.000, is really irrelevant. The Illinois government bureaucrats and union bosses are destroying Illinois and as many taxpayers as they have to, in order to prop up the government employee pension scam which will collapse under their watch.”
