Click here to view Iroquois County’s top government teacher salaries.
Click here to view Iroquois County’s top government teacher pensions.
Click here to view the top IMRF pensions for Iroquois County.
IROQUOIS COUNTY–A new report by Taxpayers United of America (TUA) reveals that many government school employees and retirees of Iroquois County, Illinois receive lavish, gold-plated salaries and pensions that far exceed average annual wages of workers in the private sector.
“These outrageous government-employee pensions are bankrupting the state,” said Jim Tobin, TUA President. “Springfield House and Senate Democrats just temporarily raised the state personal income tax 67%, all $6.4 billion taxpayer dollars of which is being used to fund the state’s lavish retired government employee pension programs.”
“Despite Iroquois County’s 9.9% unemployment rate and average annual wage of $31,000, public school employees are really raking it in,” said Tobin. “The largest salary goes to Linda Dvorak, of Iroquois West CUSD 10, whose annual salary is $148,144. Daniel Hylbert, of Cissna Park CUSD 6, is close behind, making $128,870.”
“Iroquois County’s retired public school teachers in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) are also getting rich” said Tobin. “The largest annual TRS pension goes to Larry T Eyre formerly of Iroquois West CUSD 10, whose annual pension is a staggering $102,786– $8,565 a month. Corliss Norton, formerly of Central CUSD 4, already has received a total pension payout of $1,074,911.
Those in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), which is funded by our property taxes, are collecting lavish pensions. One of the largest IMRF pensions in Iroquois County goes to Shelby Townsend, formerly of Iroquois County, who has made $651,853 off of his pension to date, and is still collecting $48,545 annually. Mark Thompson, also formerly of the Iroquois County, collects a pension of $68,501 a year. To date Thompson has raked in an accumulated $372,316.
“Three crucial reforms can save the system and spare Illinois taxpayers. First, new government hires should be put into social security and required to fund their own retirements with 401(k) plans. Ending pensions for new government hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions. Second, in Illinois, if each current state pension fund employee were required to contribute an additional 10% to his or her pension, taxpayers would save over $150 billion over the next 35 years. And finally, requiring Illinois government employees and retirees to pay for one-half of their health care premiums would save even more – an estimated $230 billion over current projections.”
Click here to view this news release as a PDF.