Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United for America, is quoted in the following story from the Chicago Tribune.
This month, for the first time in their lives, some 10- and 11-year-old Cub Scouts from Chicago built a fire, pitched tents and slept under the stars.
The kids discovered the great outdoors in a small patch of Cook County Forest Preserve across the street from a housing development in Tinley Park. It’s not wilderness, troop leader Ariadna Sanchez conceded, but for one night, she said, it was another world.
“It gives them the feel for the outdoors while living in the city,” she said. “You can be in nature but still be safe. If you need to get a pizza, you can still go to the mall.”
Long derided as neglected natural resources, the forest preserves of suburban Cook County may not be an obvious destination for those looking to escape the urban hustle and bustle. County officials hope to change that perception — and are banking on a proposed investment of up to $22 million in upgrades to lure campers.
The proposal is part of County Board President — and former Girl Scout — Toni Preckwinkle’s goal to improve neglected district facilities and provide more recreation in hopes of attracting more people to the preserves.
Currently, only youth groups are allowed to camp overnight, and they accounted for 5,000 stays last year. The idea is to open the preserves to adult and family camping, which are currently prohibited. As officials draw up a camping master plan, the changes could also provide greater access for people with disabilities, and possibly for corporate retreats, day camps, RVs and campers.
This spring, officials sought feedback on the plan from groups like Boy Scouts of America, YMCA and Sierra Club. A public input period on the master plan runs through Monday at preserve nature centers and at http://fpdcc.com/camping/. Public meetings will be held on the proposal this summer, and if the plan is finalized by August, officials hope to have new facilities ready for use starting by late next year.
The proposed changes come at a time when the number of people camping nationally has been holding fairly steady. The Outdoor Foundation, an industry group, reported that while the number of people camping decreased 10 percent in 2011, camping had increased during the recession as a cheap getaway. Participation is spread evenly across income levels and ages, the group says.
Elsewhere in the Chicago area, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties all offer forest preserve camping, which attracts thousands of campers each year, generally starting May 1. Illinois state parks offer sites year-round, and now is the time to make summer reservations, because the half-dozen most popular sites, like Chain O’ Lakes and Starved Rock state parks, generally fill up.
Cook County also offered public camping in the past. At one time it had nine camps, most of which were acquired from other organizations. But over the years, the district didn’t maintain the sites, some of which dated from the 1930s, said Gordie Kaplan, executive director of the American Camp Association, Illinois. The sites deteriorated, and many were eventually closed.
The county now has three campsites, plus three others operated by youth organizations. But the remaining sites are run down and in less-than-idyllic locations — near main roads or under an airplane flight path, said forest preserve Commissioner Timothy Schneider.
He supports creating new campsites to get people out to enjoy the forest preserves, which cover more than a 10th of all land in Cook County, according to the district.
“There’s never been an emphasis on camping as long as I’ve been commissioner,” Schneider said. “We need to provide more passive recreation in our forest preserves so people can realize what a beautiful environment we have.”
For dramatic landscapes, officials admit, forest preserves can’t compete with some out-of-state sites that lure Chicago-area residents, like Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. But for convenience and affordability, district Executive Director Arnold Randall said, the preserves offer an easy way to introduce beginners to the great outdoors.
The preserves also encompass a mix of woods, marshes, rivers, ponds, hills, rare orchids and a variety of wildlife, including a recently discovered nest of bald eagles.
A big goal is to make outdated facilities more appealing. Instead of fly-ridden outhouses and pump wells, Randall said, officials hope to offer amenities like hot showers and better access for people with disabilities. A new conference room might provide room for corporate retreats. To complement the campgrounds, the district might have activities like naturalist-led hikes, team building or ropes courses, and mount a marketing campaign to attract visitors.
“We want to do it really well,” Randall said. “We want to have a lot of different experiences for people and be known regionally as a destination.”
One potential model for such a facility, suggested by supporters, is Lakewood Forest Preserve, Lake County’s largest, which offers camping, fishing, a dog area, miles of trails and a local history museum in Wauconda.
Because alcohol is allowed in the Cook County preserves, the district likely would have to beef up security by its own police or other alternatives such as park rangers to combat late-night partying.
While the measure appears to have support among Cook County Board members, who double as forest preserve commissioners, not everyone loves the idea. Jim Tobin, president of the Taxpayers United of America, said the notion of spending $22 million on campsites is a “travesty,” noting that as a boy in Chicago, he and his friends used to ride bikes and camp by day in forest preserves without a formal campsite.
During hard economic times, following a major state income tax increase, Tobin said, governments should be cutting spending, not increasing it.
Officials plan to borrow the money by starting to issue bonds this June, and plan to repay it from existing revenue in a balanced budget without raising taxes, Randall said. As proposed, $100 million to $110 million in new borrowed money would go to a variety of projects for the next five years.
In addition to the money earmarked for new and upgraded campgrounds, the spending could include $25 million for buying land, about $10 million for improvements to the Brookfield Zoo and $7 million for Chicago Botanic Garden upgrades. User fees — currently $10 per night per tent, though an increase is possible — would also help pay for camping operating expenses.
Bob Buehler, Cub Scout master of Pack 381 in Buffalo Grove, welcomed the plan as a way to offer an underrated and satisfying reconnection with nature. Buehler grew up on Chicago’s South Side and spent a lot of time in the preserves as a Boy Scout.
“It’s always nice to get out in nature and see there’s things bigger than us and our day-to-day lives,” he said. “You lose touch with that in the city. Even in those little patches of forest across the street from a Hackney’s restaurant, it feels like you’re out in the woods.”
To help draw up the camping plan the Forest Preserve District last fall hired Dallas landscape architecture firm Studio Outside for $300,000.
Findings from TUA’s pension project on Duluth, Minnesota are featured in this article from the Duluth News Tribune.
A Chicago-based watchdog group that trains its critical eye on public employee pensions has turned its scrutiny to Duluth and St. Louis County.
The group’s figures, confirmed by the Public Employees Retirement Association of Minnesota, show that 17 retired city or county workers receive pensions of more than $100,000 a year.
At the top of the county list was Robert Zeleznikar, a retired director of social services, who receives $160,051 a year in pension payments after 40 years of employment.
While the Taxpayers United of America uses the numbers as an argument to replace defined-benefit pensions with defined-contribution accounts like 401(k)s, PERA and union officials said the amounts cited by the watchdog group are far higher than most public workers’ pensions.
“Many government retirees make more in pension payments than private-sector taxpayers make in salaries,” said Christina Tobin, vice president of Taxpayers United of America, questioning whether those levels of retirement pay are sustainable.
“We’re shedding light on pension spending and the need for real reform,” Tobin said.
But state PERA executive director Mary Vanek said that, by focusing only on the highest-paid public pension recipients, Taxpayers United doesn’t present a complete, representative picture.
“They’ve picked a demographic that clearly skews the facts,” Vanek said. “The important thing to realize is that less than one-quarter of 1 percent of PERA participants get more than $100,000 per year.”
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011, PERA paid a little more than $100.4 million to 5,004 retirees, said Susan Barbieri, communications officer for Retirement Systems of Minnesota. That translates to an average annual pension of $20,700.
Taxpayers United of America compiled a list showing the top 25 government pensions received by Duluth and St. Louis County retirees. Topping the city list was Janet Schroeder, who retired from her job as the director of Duluth’s libraries 20 years ago.
“It sounds a little high,” Schroeder said of numbers showing her monthly pension at $9,491 — or $113,896 a year.
Tobin vouched for the accuracy of the report, saying: “These are the numbers we received from the state. It’s funny that even the people in the system are sometimes surprised by them.”
Vanek of PERA confirmed that the information about monthly payments came from her organization, as it is a matter of public record.
Schroeder said she made much less at the library than directors in similar posts across the country and less than other men who worked for the city.
“I have no idea why they would have me higher on the list,” she said.
Schroeder noted that individual workers aren’t in the driver’s seat when it comes to determining pension pay. “We have no say, really, on what the pensions are,” she said.
As for being labeled a “pension millionaire” by Taxpayers United, Schroeder was dubious.
“Who knows?” she said. “So what?”
Ben Boo, former Duluth mayor, St. Louis County purchasing agent and state legislator, said he hasn’t paid attention to his pension since retiring 20 years ago, saying PERA does all the figuring for him.
The numbers attributed to him — $8,449 a month or $101,393 a year — seem high, he said. As for pension reform, he said, “Those were the rules that were in place.”
Boo said his salary as mayor was $48,000, and his top salary as a legislator was $20,000.
Zeleznikar, who retired in 1992 from St. Louis County at the age of 64, declined comment about his position at the top of the list when contacted by the News Tribune last week.
Though the Duluth and St. Louis County pension payments may sound generous, Tobin said local pension figures are very much in keeping with what her organization has found in other communities, as well.
“It’s an eye-opening experience when you see the names and amounts being paid in your community,” said Rae Ann McNeilly, director of outreach for Taxpayers United. “You begin to understand this system was created by power players who use the rank and file to secure their positions of power.”
Pension gap expected to narrow
For a variety of reasons, public pensions as far above the average as the local Top 50 are expected to be increasingly rare.
During the stock market’s go-go years, when investments were performing well, PERA provided far more generous annual increases in its payments to retirees. Vanek said many of the people on the Taxpayer United list have been drawing benefits for 20-plus years and received nice bumps in payments between 1992 and 2003 to reflect the fund’s handsome investment gains at that time.
Those kinds of benefit increases are not expected to return in the foreseeable future. PERA now makes only a 1 percent upward adjustment each year.
In addition, unions have willingly made recent concessions in pension compensation to keep the system solvent, according to Alan Netland, president of the Northeast Area Labor Council.
Solvency — or the assurance that 100 percent of potential pension payouts have money behind them — is mandated by state law by 2031. PERA is on track to reach that goal, Vanek said.
At present, PERA is only 76 percent adequately funded to meet its future commitments. The system would need another $4.4 billion to become fully funded.
“Minnesota is not the worst out there, by far. But there is an issue,” said David Montgomery, chief administrative officer for the city of Duluth, reflecting on PERA. “It’s not an imminent, crisis-tomorrow issue, but if you let it go, the less time you have to make up any shortfall. And time is your best friend to make the impact of any change more moderate.”
Vanek noted that all 48 local individuals who made Taxpayers United’s lists — two people were on both lists, having worked for both the county and city — did not pay into Social Security but instead made larger contributions to their pension funds. They don’t receive Social Security benefits in retirement but reap higher pension payments.
Firefighters and police continue to be exempt from Social Security, but most city and county employees hired after 1968 now participate in Social Security.
Defined-benefit vs. defined-contribution
Taxpayer United’s McNeilly called on government leaders to move away from defined-benefit programs or run the risk of mounting liabilities and an eventual crisis.
“We need to change to a defined contribution or 401(k) system that pays people a fair wage and equips them to save for their own retirement and build their own security,” she said.
Public employees do make substantial contributions to their pension funds, said Barbieri of Retirement Systems of Minnesota. PERA participants funnel 6.25 percent of their total earnings into these funds, she said.
Law enforcement officers and firefighters contribute 9.6 percent of their gross pay to PERA, and local government chips in 14.4 percent of gross pay, according to Jim Gottschald, St. Louis County’s employee relations director.
In all, 13 percent of revenue used to fund PERA’s pension system during the last 20 years has come from employee contributions. Meanwhile, the taxpayer has picked up 14 percent of the tab. Investment earnings have accounted for 73 percent of the pie.
“There are a lot of pros and cons to a defined-benefit versus a defined-contribution system,” Montgomery said. “It comes down to: Who’s ultimately responsible, and where does the risk lie? With a defined benefit, the risk lies mostly with the employer. And with a defined contribution system, the risk lies mostly with the employees.”
Projections challenged
To make its case for reform, Taxpayers United of America made some startling projections about what the Top 25 pensions would cost over a retiree’s lifetime — projections criticized as based on flawed assumptions.
For example, it projected that Zeleznikar would probably collect more than $6.2 million in pension payments before he dies. But those projections were based on the assumption that workers would retire by age 56 and would have an average life expectancy of 85.
Zeleznikar’s case illustrates the problematic nature of the exercise. Now age 84, Zeleznikar retired about 20 years ago, working well past the age assumed by the group. Just one year shy of his presumed age of death, Zeleznikar has collected nowhere near the sum Taxpayers United projects he will receive.
“In Minnesota, the normal retirement age for public employees is now 66, and if you go earlier, there’s a substantial reduction in pay,” Barbieri said.
More than three-quarters of PERA members are now subject to the higher retirement age requirement, according to Vanek.
Looking at the records of the individuals who made Taxpayers United’s list, PERA calculated that the actual average lifetime payout would be 50 to 64 percent of what the organization projected. This forecast was based on payments already made, actuarial estimates of each individual’s lifespan and an annual increase in benefits of 1 percent, instead of the 2 percent cost of living adjustment Taxpayers United used.
Even if every individual projection does not hold, Tobin said, the size of the pension payments is still substantial and worrisome.
The Peoria Journal Star featured TUA’s release on Illinois state troopers and corrections officers who are pension millionaires.
GERMANTOWN HILLS —A recently retired captain of District 8 of the Illinois State Police and the current director of the region’s covert drug enforcement group each receive among the highest state pensions.
According to a report released this week by Chicago-based Taxpayers United of America, those pensions – both above $110,000 annually – are in the top 100 in the state and are representative of a trend: State troopers and corrections officers make up an overwhelming majority of those who earn the most from state pensions after they retire.
Of the top 100 pensions in the State Employee Retirement System, 84 are state troopers or corrections officers and 28 of those retired at age 50 with pensions of more than $110,000 a year.
In both categories is Dean Kennedy, who left as captain of District 8, with headquarters in Germantown Hills, at the end of September with an annual pension of $119,184 – or 80 percent of his salary at the end of his career at the top of the trooper pay scale.
“I know I’m very fortunate, but yet on the other hand, I didn’t make them do this,” Kennedy said. “I understand people’s frustration . . . but it was a contract. It’s what we were promised.”
The former captain is among a block of about 20 former troopers in the middle of the list released by Taxpayers United who are drawing the same annual pension amount and mostly retired in their early 50s within the last two years.
Further down on the list of 100 is Rene Sandoval, who retired from his post with the narcotics enforcement group in the Quad Cities last summer to become director of the Peoria Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group. In addition to his salary for that job, he collects a pension of $111,381 annually. Sandoval declined to comment on the Taxpayers United report.
The president of that group, Jim Tobin, in a release on the results pointed to the amounts as “clearly unsustainable” and the reason that the state pension system is currently underfunded. As a solution, he suggested replacing government pensions for all new hires with Social Security, 401(k) investment plans and increases in employee contributions.
And to a retiree like Kennedy, that doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable. But it also wasn’t the reality under which he worked, he said. For more than 27 years, he paid 12.8 percent of his checks into the pension system as required, without any other options for his own money and without the option of Social Security.
“There’s some people who think (state employees) sit around and don’t do anything – that’s ridiculous,” Kennedy said. “All I can say is I knew I was getting paid very well, and I tried to do the best that I could for it.”
Of the top 100 pensions in the State Employee Retirement System, 84 are state troopers or corrections officers and 28 of those retired at age 50 with pensions of more than $110,000 a year.
In both categories is Dean Kennedy, who left as captain of District 8, with headquarters in Germantown Hills, at the end of September with an annual pension of $119,184 – or 80 percent of his salary at the end of his career at the top of the trooper pay scale.
“I know I’m very fortunate, but yet on the other hand, I didn’t make them do this,” Kennedy said. “I understand people’s frustration . . . but it was a contract. It’s what we were promised.”
The former captain is among a block of about 20 former troopers in the middle of the list released by Taxpayers United who are drawing the same annual pension amount and mostly retired in their early 50s within the last two years.
Further down on the list of 100 is Rene Sandoval, who retired from his post with the narcotics enforcement group in the Quad Cities last summer to become director of the Peoria Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group. In addition to his salary for that job, he collects a pension of $111,381 annually. Sandoval declined to comment on the Taxpayers United report.
The president of that group, Jim Tobin, in a release on the results pointed to the amounts as “clearly unsustainable” and the reason that the state pension system is currently underfunded. As a solution, he suggested replacing government pensions for all new hires with Social Security, 401(k) investment plans and increases in employee contributions.
And to a retiree like Kennedy, that doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable. But it also wasn’t the reality under which he worked, he said. For more than 27 years, he paid 12.8 percent of his checks into the pension system as required, without any other options for his own money and without the option of Social Security.
“There’s some people who think (state employees) sit around and don’t do anything – that’s ridiculous,” Kennedy said. “All I can say is I knew I was getting paid very well, and I tried to do the best that I could for it.”
