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PHILADELPHIA—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today revealed retired government employee pensions for the City of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania statewide government teachers. Many Pennsylvania government employees are becoming pension millionaires when retired.
“Many government retirees make more in pension payments than the private sector taxpayers make in salaries,” stated Christina Tobin, TUA Vice President. “Both the economy and the pension system are in serious trouble. While taxpayers struggle to save for their own retirement and fund the pension system, government retirees have to be concerned that their pension payments will continue.”
“I have delivered letters to Gov. Corbett and each member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, calling for meaningful pension reforms that will be both fair and sustainable. TUA is ready to work with legislators to implement reforms that will preserve the system for those that are relying on it, and bring relief to the taxpayers who are obligated to fund it.”
“Private sector taxpayers are struggling in the ‘Great Recession,’ with an average income of $56,000.
The unemployment/underemployment rate (U6) is 14.9%. The maximum Social Security annual payout is $22,000, regardless of how much one may have earned in their working career.”
“Sylvester Johnson, retired Philadelphia government employee, collects an annual pension of $152,440. His estimated lifetime payout is $4,573,199.*”
“Vincent Jannetti, retired from the Philadelphia government, has an annual pension of $133,097 with an estimated lifetime payout of $3,992,915*.”
“Retired Pennsylvania teacher, Anthony V. Costello, has a lifetime estimated payout of $6,680,556* based on his actual annual pension of $222,685.”
“Pennsylvania government pension systems are making millionaires out of public employees at taxpayer expense. Ending pensions for all new government hires and replacing with social security and 401(k)s would eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions. If government employees would just increase their pension contributions, they would preserve their pension benefits. Anything less will ensure the system’s collapse and Pennsylvania government retirees will get nothing. We need a stable system that is fair to both taxpayers and beneficiaries.”
“Every employee deserves a fair wage for the work they do at the time they do it so they can plan for their own retirement, rather than counting on the bureaucrats who helped create such an unstable situation.”
“This is the time for the political courage to do what’s in the best interest of taxpayers, rather than the special interests. Let’s knock any politician out-of-office who cuts bad deals with union bosses and corporations! Republican or Democrat, what’s the difference, with numbers like these?”
View pension amounts below:

• Letter to Governor
• Letter to General Assembly
• Philadelphia Municipal Employees
• State Teachers K-12

Monday, TUA (Taxpayers United of America) announced Pittsburgh public employee pension figures that were based on information obtained from Right-to-Know requests of city and county pension funds.
Attorney for the pension fund, Jim South, said that the information they provided was inaccurate based on the actual request for pension data.
“The figures were wrong, because the information we received from the city was wrong,” stated Christina Tobin, Vice President of TUA. “The city said they will provide the correct information, which TUA will publish upon receipt.”
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In Altoona, TUA was told it was incorrect in stating that Reynold Santone, Jr., the current fire chief, was getting pension payments since 4/1/2009 of $4000 a month.
TUA was informed by Kimberly Carrieri, Deputy City Clerk, that Mr. Santone has not directly received the payments; instead, he is in a ‘drop program.’ His pension benefit is taken out of the pension fund, and placed in a special pension account for him. So while he is not currently collecting it directly, the money is indeed, being accumulated for him.
“Mr. Santone would be disingenuous to deny that he is not receiving both a pension and salary from the taxpayers of Altoona.  A deferred payment is a payment. This ability to double dip from taxpayers is precisely why TUA names names.  It is one of the many flaws of the current pension system in Altoona, the flaws created by bad union bosses making deals with bad politicians at the expense of taxpayers and rank-and-file alike” added Tobin.
View/download the orginal raw data provided by Altoona and Pittsburgh city governments:

• Altoona-Pension-Info-Taxpayers-2.xlsx
• Municipal-Retiree-GTD-PENSION.xls
• Retirement-Benefits-forthe-City-of-Altoona-PA-Employees-11-17-11.docx
• Retirement-Benefits-forthe-City-of-Pittsburgh-PA-Employees-11-17-11.docx

View release as a PDF
HARRISBURG—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today revealed retired government employee pensions for Harrisburg, Dauphin County, and the State of Pennsylvania. Many Pennsylvania government employees are becoming pension millionaires when retired.
“Many government retirees make more in pension payments than the private sector taxpayers make in salaries,” stated Christina Tobin, TUA Vice President. “Both the economy and the pension system are in serious trouble. While taxpayers struggle to save for their own retirement and fund the pension system, government retirees have to be concerned that their pension payments will continue.”
“I have delivered letters to Gov. Corbett and each member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, calling for meaningful pension reforms that will be both fair and sustainable. TUA is ready to work with legislators to implement reforms that will preserve the system for those that are relying on it, and bring relief to the taxpayers who are obligated to fund it.”
“Private sector taxpayers are struggling in the ‘Great Recession,’ with an average income of $46,000.
The unemployment/underemployment rate (U6) is 14.9%. The maximum Social Security annual payout is $22,000, regardless of how much one may have earned in their working career.”
“Stephen J. Benkovic, retired from Pennsylvania State University, collects an annual pension of $443,880. His estimated lifetime payout is $11,540.874.*”
“Frank L. Oliver, retired from the Pennsylvania General Assembly, has an annual pension of $286,118 with an estimated lifetime payout of $8,583,527*.”
“Retired Harrisburg City employee, Lester M. McClure, has a lifetime estimated payout of $1,772,399* based on his actual annual pension of $59,080.”
“Pennsylvania government pension systems are making millionaires out of public employees at taxpayer expense. Ending pensions for all new government hires and replacing with social security and 401(k)s would eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions. If government employees would just increase their pension contributions, they would preserve their pension benefits. Anything less will ensure the system’s collapse and Pennsylvania government retirees will get nothing. We need a stable system that is fair to both taxpayers and beneficiaries.”
“Every employee deserves a fair wage for the work they do at the time they do it so they can plan for their own retirement, rather than counting on the bureaucrats who helped create such an unstable situation.”
“This is the time for the political courage to do what’s in the best interest of taxpayers, rather than the special interests. Let’s knock any politician out-of-office, who cuts bad deals with union bosses and corporations! Republican or Democrat, what’s the difference, with numbers like these?”
View pension amounts below:

• Letter to Governor
• Letter to General Assembly
• Harrisburg Government Employees
• Dauphin County Government Employees
• State Government Employees
• State Police
• State Judges
• Penn State Employees
• State Legislators