TUA President Jim Tobin appeared on CBS News Chicago Wednesday, to discuss the use of promotional trinkets, which costs Illinois taxpayers almost $1 million per year.
Source: CBS News.
Retiring Chicago Mayor Richard Daley recently chose to exploit the laws of Illinois to maximize taxpayer expense for his lavish pension.
Under the Illinois Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act, all his government jobs are being combined into one lump sum, instead of receiving separate pensions from every government body he worked for.
Daley is also taking advantage of a rule that was in effect for legislators in office before 1994, which allows him to base his state pension on his last government salary. In this case, it’s based on his $216,000 salary as mayor of Chicago. This allows him to collect a higher pension, then if each pension was based separately on his earnings at each job. In effect, it creates a fictional job that can be used to take more money from taxpayers.
Jim Tobin, president of TUA, told WBBM that it’s unfair to put the burden of paying for Daley’s and other government workers’ pensions on state income tax payers and Chicago property tax payers. Tobin said it appeared that Mayor Daley will celebrate his retirement by “retiring in luxury as he enjoys his double-dipping pension.”
You can listen to the WBBM radio episode here:
Source: WBBM
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Source: WSIL-TV (ABC).
