Findings from TUA’s pension project on retired Illinois State Police are featured in this story from CBS-2 Chicago. To see video of the story, click on the player below.
(CBS) — Retire at 50 and collect more than $100,000 a year – that’s the plan for a special group of state workers.
Some members of the Illinois State Police can end up collecting millions of dollars, according to a study by Taxpayers United of America.
“The pensions for the state police are outrageous,” TUA President Jim Tobin tells 2 Investigator Pam Zekman.
He says each of the top 200 state police pensioners receive an income of more than $107,000 per year. Their former state agency has the earliest retirement age and the highest pension payout over time, Tobin says.
A state trooper with 25 years on the job can retire at 50 and get 80 percent of his pay. Add overtime and yearly cost-of-living-adjustments, and some end up making more in retirement than they did while they worked.
Take John Lofton, for example. He was making a salary of $80,801 a year when he retired in 2002. He also got a check for $65,482 for overtime, CBS 2 has learned.
Overtime payments boosted Lofton’s monthly salary of $6,800 by $3,100 a month for the purpose of pension calculations, an Illinois State Retirement System official says.
Lofton’s current pension, with COLAs, is now $134,026, compared to that $80,800 annual salary when he retired.
Lofton says he earned a lot of overtime providing security for state officials.
“I just went to work and figured when it was time to retire they would calculate it all out,” Lofton told CBS 2. “People like myself, we did our jobs and we paid into the system.”
When former Illinois State Police Capt. Daniel Roach retired at age 50 he also got an $82,204 payout for unused vacation and sick time. That one-time payout does not apply to calculations for his pension, which is currently $117,787.
According to Tobin’s calculations, the early retirement means Roach could collect $7.1 million if he lives to 85.
“I’m not going to live that long,” says Roach, who now runs a private security firm.
Tobin sums up the situation this way: “Healthy people are retiring at 50 with multi-million-dollar pension payouts. Another person is then hired to do his or her job — now you’re paying two people to do a job.”
CBS 2 found some retired troopers now have a personal service contract with the state, earning a second salary.
For example, former state police Lt. Scott Deubel was 53 when he retired and currently has a pension of $119,184 a year.
Since then, he has had a contract with the Illinois State Gaming Board. The panel now pays Deupel $71 an hour or up to an estimated $139,132 annually, according to a state spokesman.
Deubel spent 20 of his 30 years with the state police overseeing casino dock sites for the gaming board.
Now, as a deputy administrator of investigations, the spokesman says Deubel has been “instrumental” in supervising video gambling investigations and the startup for a 10th casino license.
Deubel’s contract salary, together with his pension, will potentially give him an income of $233,144 for 2013.
“Does that sound like a good deal for taxpayers?” Zekman asked Deubel.
“With my experience I think it’s an excellent deal for them,” Deubel responded.
State Rep. Jeanne Ives is pushing a bill that would eliminate all of the state’s current pension plans.
“We have the worst unfunded pension liability in the entire United States,” she says. “We either reform and save you a pension and move you to a modernized 401k plan or you are at risk of not having a pension.”
Mike Powell, president of the union local that represents state police, says his organization is against any plan to take or reduce their pension.
“The vast reason the state is in trouble is because they have not paid their pension contributions,” Powell says.
State officials say the use of an “alternative formula” to calculate state police pensions began in the 1960s and over time grew to include other state investigators, public safety employees and corrections officers.
Taxpayers United has long believed that the Illinois state police are unnecessary, except for the crime lab.
Illinois State Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said: “The Illinois State Police, like many other public safety organizations, have pension plans that are fully supported by its law enforcement officers throughout their careers. They pay into a retirement system and are entitled to their benefit of service. These are the men and women who risk their lives every day to keep peace and safety in all communities.
“Taxpayers United of America has stated that the Illinois State Police are “unnecessary” – a statement that should give every innocent victim, every law abiding citizen, and every taxpayer pause for concern.”
Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United for America, appeared on News Radio WJPF to discuss Illinois Tax Freedom Day and TUA’s study on the highest pensions in Illinois. To listen, click on the image below.
TUA’s work in helping local activists defeat 4 property-tax-increase referenda was featured in the Daily Herald.
Experts used to say the best time to ask voters for a tax increase is when there are fewer of them at the polls.
Tuesday’s election results in DuPage County show how much times have changed.
Despite less than 19 percent voter turnout countywide, four DuPage school districts were left licking their wounds after voters soundly defeated requests for more property tax money.
Itasca Elementary District 10 sought more tax dollars to fill holes in its budget. Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, Lake Park High School District 108 and Butler Elementary District 53 were hoping to pursue construction projects.
All of them lost.
“We went into this knowing it was going to be an uphill battle,” said Alan Hanzlik, president of the District 53 school board in Oak Brook.
Still, supporters were surprised when the district’s request to borrow $15 million to build a $40 million K-8 school was rejected by about 72 percent of the residents who voted on the measure, according to unofficial results.
A ballot question related to where the school would be built did worse.
About 76 percent of the Oak Brook voters who weighed in refused to give the village permission to sell Sports Core land to District 53 for the school.
Meanwhile, voter turnout for both ballot questions was more than 41 percent.
Hanzlik said he’s now trying to figure out what went wrong with the referendum campaign.
But with voters also resisting property tax hikes in District 200, District 108 and District 10, it’s possible nothing could have changed the outcome.
“The failure of a broad cross-section of these referendums indicates taxpayers are still hurting economically,” said Terry Pastika, executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst. “They are feeling the squeeze. They are feeling overburdened.”
District 10 officials said they had to seek $1 million annually in extra taxes to fill a budget shortfall that was caused, in part, by decreased state and federal funding.
That didn’t stop Taxpayers United of America from campaigning against the ballot question. The Chicago-based government watchdog group argued the district was seeking higher property taxes at a time when Itasca taxpayers are taking home less pay.
The end result was the proposal being rejected by nearly 60 percent of the District 10 residents who voted on it.
District 200 residents who championed a proposal to replace an aging early childhood center acknowledge the sluggish economy likely played a role in the measure’s defeat.
“We feel that the community didn’t say ‘No.’ We feel that they said ‘Not yet.’” said Dan Wagner, who served as co-chairman of a group called Friends of the Schools — Yes to the Jefferson Early Childhood Center Referendum.
District 200 sought voter approval to borrow $17.6 million to construct a new Jefferson Early Childhood Center and demolish the existing structure in Wheaton. Roughly 59 percent of the voters rejected the idea.
Without a November election, taxing bodies can’t seek another ballot question until March 2014.
District 200 school board President Rosemary Swanson said officials will take time to review the election results to determine what concerns voters had about the proposal. “We’ll work to see if we can find a plan that’s acceptable to them,” she said.
In the meantime, the existing Jefferson doesn’t match the program it houses. While two-thirds of the students have special needs, the building originally was designed as an elementary school.
Some students receive therapy in converted storage closets, while others use equipment set up at the end of hallways. In addition, some entrances and bathrooms aren’t accessible for students in wheelchairs and walkers.
“It (Jefferson) needs an overall redesign,” Swanson said. “And we do not have the money in our district funds to be able to do that without going to the voters to seek their support in the future.”
In District 108, officials say they don’t foresee the issue of an indoor swimming pool at Lake Park High School going away.
In fact, they said they’re encouraged by the results, in which roughly 55 percent of voters said no to both questions related to the proposed pool.
“We’re seeing an increasing level of community support even though it didn’t work to our favor this time,” Superintendent Lynne Panega said. “Maybe there is some traction. So we’re trying to focus on the positive and use this to move forward.”
