Taxpayer Alert

View as PDF Chicago – Taxpayers United of America (TUA) helped local activists defeat Home Rule in 2 more communities in yesterday’s Illinois primary election. TUA has helped taxpayers defeat a total of 211 Home Rule referenda since its founding 40 years ago. TUA also helped taxpayers of Roselle SD12 to try and defeat a $1.5 million property tax increase referenda but lost to supporters of the tax and spend status quo. Overall, TUA has helped taxpayers defeat a total of 419 tax increase referenda since TUA’s first began contesting referenda in 1977.
“Taxpayers were divided, like everything political these days, over whether they were ready to tell the government bureaucrats to keep their hands out of our pockets and to stop spending our tax dollars faster than they are collected,” stated Jared Labell, TUA director of operations. “Fortunately, a few communities fought back with the ballot box yesterday against unlimited taxing authority.”
Taxpayers in Westchester and Franklin Park resoundingly defeated Home Rule referenda with the assistance of TUA:
Village of Westchester, Home Rule
(13 of 13 precincts counted)
YES 1,350 25.01%
NO 4,047 74.99%
Total 5,397
Village of Franklin Park, Home Rule
(11 of 11 precincts counted)
YES 1,400 36.57%
NO 2,428 63.43%
Total 3,828
“Some taxpayers in Summit weren’t so savvy at the polls. They clearly didn’t get the message that Home Rule always means higher taxes, more bureaucracy, and more government in your business,” said Labell. “Home Rule narrowly passed in Summit by 136 votes.”
Village of Summit, Home Rule
(3 of 3 precincts counted)
YES 946 53.87%
NO 810 46.13%
Total 1,756
“Unfortunately, taxpayers in Roselle SD12 weren’t ready to tell government school bureaucrats that enough is enough and force them to rein in spending, as voters approved a $1.5 million dollar property tax increase. Apparently they haven’t gotten the message that 80% of local taxes fund government salaries and benefits, including ridiculously lucrative pensions. This is a much more insidious problem than the typical waste, fraud, and abuse that we know is rampant in government bureaucracies,” said Labell.
Roselle GS 12 PROP TAX
Total
Yes 1518, 56.37%
No 1175, 43.63%
“These substantial property tax hikes are not ‘for the children’ or the collective improvement of the community. It’s a shame that voters decided to force more tax dollars out of the productive private sector and award taxpayers’ hard-earned money to government thugs and cronies. These bureaucrats would prefer that your property tax payments put you out of your home before they would agree to compensation that is fair to them, the children, and the community they are supposed to serve,” concluded Labell.
Look for further analyses of the March 15 primary election results from TUA in the coming days.

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CHICAGO—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) today released the results of their updated analysis of Illinois’ Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).
“In forty years of fighting government fraud, waste and abuse, nothing compares to TRS,” stated Jim Tobin, TUA president.
“This group of government employees uses our children as pawns in their demand for higher wages and benefits and yet there is no accountability, no measure of what makes a good teacher, and no way to get rid of the bad ones. All of the annual pensions on the TRS Top 200 are greater than $185,000.”
“Illinois overpays its teachers in the classroom and in retirement. 80% of all of those property tax and income tax increases go to fund government employee salaries and benefits. Clearly, it is not for the children,” added Tobin.

• Total number of TRS pension beneficiaries is approximately 114,434
• 8,507 collect pensions in excess of $100,000
• 56,717 collect pensions in excess of $50,000
• The average annual TRS pension is $52,752
• The average amount that employees paid into their own pension fund is $74,470, or 4.1% of their estimated lifetime pension payout
• The average estimated lifetime payout is $1.5 million*
• The average age at retirement is 58
• The average years of employment are 27
• In fiscal year 2015, taxpayers were forced to pay $3,523,256,530 into the government pension fund
• In fiscal year 2015, teachers’ paid $935,451,049 into their own government pension fund
• The net return on investment for TRS was only 4%, or $1,770,549,533
• As of the end of fiscal year 2015, TRS had a 42% funded ratio with a $62 billion unfunded liability

“These are not poor civil servants! The average Illinois government teacher salary is $69,538 – that average includes part-time teachers. Nearly half of the Top 200 TRS pensioners collect more in retirement than their final salary while employed.”
“Consistent with our findings of JRS and GARS, taxpayers have already paid more than their fair share of retirement benefits for these government teachers. Taxpayers made their payments on time and in good faith and yet these government employees expect us to pay again, and again.”
“Just a couple of examples of what these ‘poor civil servants’ are forced to live on in their retirement, that is if you can call it retirement at the age of 58, underscore the lavish, gold-plated government pension problem in Illinois,” said Tobin.

“Lawrence A. Wylie tops our list with a stunning $312,081 annual pension benefit! The accumulation of those payments will, over a normal lifetime, reach a cool $3.1 million. His contribution to that gold-plated pension was only $366,522.”
“John R. Harper tops the list for estimated lifetime payouts. Retiring at only 54, he could collect more than $11.1 million in taxpayer funded pension benefits. His current annual pension is a very comfortable $239,019.”
“Donald V. Strong tops our list for the highest total government pension collected to date at $3,633,776. His own payment into this extravagant government pension was a meagre $95,659.”

• Click here to see the Top 200 list of TRS pensioners**

“We are hopeful that taxpayers will put Illinois Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan (D) and his cronies out of business. It is impossible to defend this system any longer. To expect taxpayers to bail-out the bloated promises of powerful politicians is just criminal,” charged Tobin.
“Boss Madigan has had the Illinois taxpayers in his death grip for far too long. Every taxpayer needs to vote in the upcoming General Primary on March 15, 2016 and vote out every incumbent who has played a part in taxpayer abuse that strips wealth from us to put in the pockets of the government retirees.” concluded Tobin.
*Lifetime estimated pension payout includes 3% compounded COLA and assumes life expectancy of 85 (IRS Form 590).
**Blank spaces in the data are intentional and due to government redactions or withheld data points in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.
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