Altoona Mirror | Chief: I’m not getting pension payments

By on March 15, 2012   /   Pennsylvania Press, Press  

Findings from TUA’s pension project on Altoona and Blair County are featured in this article at the Altoona Mirror. UPDATE: A response to this article has been made here.

Altoona Fire Chief Reynold D. Santone Jr. disagrees with a Chicago-based organization that claims he is double dipping.
Representatives of Taxpayers United of America stopped in Altoona on Tuesday to discuss the results of a new pension study that is says exposes the top pensions for the retired government employees of Altoona and Blair County, which range as high as $1.4 million and to push for pension system reform.
Santone is receiving an annual pension of $48,328 from the City of Altoona with an estimated lifetime pension payout of $1,449,835, according to the study.
“He is the current fire chief, and he is in the pension system now,” said Vice President Christina Tobin, whose father, Jim, founded the grassroots organization in 1976. “He is collecting a pension from the pension system today. It is like he is double dipping.”
Santone said that is not the case.
He said he dropped out of the pension plan in 2009 but remained employed by the city as fire chief.
“I am not getting pension money. My pension was frozen in 2009. I had to give up post-retirement health care and 101 sick days to get into the plan,” Santone said. “I can’t touch that money until I actually retire from the City of Altoona. It is not like I am getting paid by the City of Altoona and getting a pension.”
Blair County Sheriff Mitchell Cooper, who retired as an Altoona police officer in 2008 after nearly 26 years on the force, is at the top of the Altoona Police pensions list, the taxpayers group said.
Cooper is receiving an annual pension of $42,852 with an estimated lifetime pension payout of $1,285,564.
Cooper said he is receiving the pension money.
“I put my time in and am getting the pension the city and FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] agreed to over the years,” Cooper said. “I don’t believe that Altoona police officers’ pensions compare to those of some other agencies. There are members of other police agencies that make more than the Altoona police.”
Meanwhile, TUA members will be in Harrisburg today to deliver letters to Gov. Tom Corbett and members of the General Assembly.
“We are calling for meaningful pension reform here in Pennsylvania,” Tobin said. “Ending pensions for all new government hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions. Putting new government hires into Social Security and 401(k)s would achieve this.”
The group also is calling for all government employees participating in a government pension fund to contribute an additional 10 percent toward their pension.
“Our position is to pay these people a fair wage and let them save for their own retirement. Pay people for the job they do and let them save for their own retirement,” TUA Director of Outreach Rae Ann McNeilly said.
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bcrnews.com | Go to the polls

By on March 15, 2012   /   Illinois Press, Press  

The following commentary by Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United for America, is featured at bcrnews.com. The subject of the commentary is a ballot measure in the city of Princeton, Illinois, on “unlimited home rule taxing power”.

As president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA), I am urging voters in the city of Princeton, Illinois, to vote no on the March 20 referendum to adopt unlimited home rule taxing power. Compared to the average income in Princeton, city politicians and bureaucrats already are living like kings.
Right now, the city of Princeton must have support from a majority of voters in order to raise city taxes. If unlimited home rule taxing power is passed, the city could raise property taxes and create new taxes without asking voters for approval. In addition, adopting home rule would exempt the city of Princeton from the current 5 percent property tax cap. The city could then raise city property taxes by any amount, any time.
Home rule also would allow the city of Princeton to impose new taxes on businesses, gasoline, groceries, parking and almost anything else.
Current and retired city bureaucrats already are rolling in money compared with Princeton residents. They don’t need more money from Princeton residents. The average annual income in Princeton is only $37,000; the median value of a home is only $102,000; and current unemployment stands at 10.2 percent. Retired Princeton bureaucrats also are raking in the dough.
Politicians are notorious for scheduling home rule and property tax increase referenda during primaries, when voter-turnout is low. This March 20, if only 10 percent of voters turn out, Princeton bureaucrats, who will be out in force, will be able to pass this home rule referendum easily.
Princeton voters should go to the polls this March 20, along with their family members and neighbors, and vote no on the unlimited home rule taxing power referendum.
Jim Tobin
Berwyn
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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Controversy doesn't stop group from disclosing pension figures

By on March 13, 2012   /   Pennsylvania Press, Press  

Findings from TUA’s pension project on Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are featured in this article at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. UPDATE: An update to the original release that this article is based on has been made here.

A group that is crisscrossing the nation raising alarms about underfunded public pension plans says it will continue to name names, even though some of its data was called into question on Monday in Pittsburgh.
A spokeswoman for Taxpayers United of America said the group is publishing the names and pension incomes of top public pensioners to emphasize the cost to taxpayers.
“Many government retirees make more in pension payments than the private-sector taxpayers make in salaries,” said Christina Tobin, vice president of the group. “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 continue.”
Confronted with statements that it dramatically inflated pensions for three Pittsburgh retirees, Tobin’s group said those numbers came from the city and would be corrected when the city issues new numbers.
Charles Dayieb, a retired parking supervisor the city says receives an annual pension of $27,380, laughed when he heard the group put his benefit at $180,331 a year.
“If you can find that, please tell me where it is,” Dayieb said.
The group, whose numbers were questioned in Ohio, wants state, local and federal government agencies to place all new employees in 401(k)-type pension plans. Public employees already in lifetime pension plans should be required to increase their contributions by 10 percent and pay half of their health care costs, Tobin said.
They plan to take their proposals to Harrisburg on Wednesday.
Gov. Tom Corbett said he is concerned about the threat public pension costs pose to state and local governments.
“We have to look at the pension issue. This is the Pac-Man of the budget,” Corbett said, referring to the video game in which voracious creatures gobble up everything in sight.
Corbett said taxpayer costs for the pension systems that cover state employees and public school workers are scheduled to increase from $1.6 billion this year to $4 billion in 2016.
Economist Steve Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center, cautioned that 401(k)-type plans often include higher overhead costs than traditional pensions.
“Most of those proposals amount to a transfer of money from Main Street to Wall Street,” he said.

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