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CHICAGO— Retired Chicago police and firemen receive lavish, gold-plated pensions, and, according to Jim Tobin, President of the Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation (ITEF), the reason Governor Patrick Quinn signed Senate Bill 3538, the $500,000,000 Chicago property tax increase, is to pump more taxpayer dollars into extravagant city pensions. The bill also forces local governments to raise property taxes statewide to fund local pensions, instead of requiring real pension reforms.
“I acknowledge that firemen and police have high-risk jobs,” said Tobin, “but that is no reason to force taxpayers to fund pensions that are making pension millionaires of many of these retirees.”

Jim Tobin announces the top pensions for Chicago's Police and Firemen to WGN TV, FoxTV Chicago, and ABC TV 7 at a News Conference held at the ITEF office Tuesday, February 8.

CHICAGO—Chicago’s retired government employees receive lavish, gold-plated pensions, and, according to Jim Tobin, President of the Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation (ITEF), the real reason Governor Quinn signed the $500,000,000 Chicago property tax increase is to pump more taxpayer dollars into the extravagant pensions of these retired Chicago government employees.
“Those receiving the largest annual pensions are retired Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) employees, whose average pension is $57,600!” said Tobin. Of the 1,601 pensioners in the MWRD fund, the largest annual pension went to Osoth Jamjun, whose annual pension was $181,392 — $15,116 a month. Joseph P Sobanski, not only received an annual pension of $180,855, but his last salary while working for the MWRD was an extravagant $229,320.”
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