OAK PARK–A new report by pension researcher Bill Zettler reveals that Suburban Cook County’s retired government employees receive lavish, gold-plated pensions that far exceed actual wages of workers in the private sector.
“These government-employee pensions are bankrupting the state pension funds,” said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI). “That’s the real reason Gov. Patrick Quinn (D) wants to raise the state personal income tax up to 66%. He wants to pump taxpayer dollars into the state’s floundering pension programs.”
Val Vimnicki at our Oak Park press conference on December 20, 2010
“Those receiving the largest annual pensions are retired government-school educators,” said Tobin. “The suburbs’ retired public school teachers in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) are really raking it in. The largest annual TRS pension goes to Laura Murrray, formerly of Homewood-Flossmoor CHSD 233, whose annual pension is $238,882 — $19,907 a month. The second-highest TRS annual pension goes to Reginald Weaver, formerly of the National Education Association, who received $235,589 a year. That’s $19,632 a month.”
“The largest pension from the suburban Cook County college pension system goes to George Jorndt, formerly of Triton College, who received an annual pension of $208,895. That’s a monthly pension of $17,408. Number two is George Dammer, formerly of South Suburban College, who received an annual pension of $163,434. That’s a monthly pension of $13,620.”
“With a median annual wage of $54,500 and a median house value of $157,700 for all of Cook County, the county’s residents are stagnating, while some of these retired government employees are well on their way to becoming pension millionaires.”
“New government hires should be required to fund their own retirements with social security and 401(k) plans. Ending pensions for new government hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions.”
“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.”
“Requiring Illinois public employees 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 suburban Cook County’s top gov’t teacher pensions
Click here to view suburban Cook County’s top college pensions
Click here to view suburban Cook County’s top IMRF pensions
Click here to view this news release as a PDF
Who cannot feel anger at the system for allowing this plunder of the public treasury. Perhaps some give-backs are in order.
Why can’t the power abusers in Springfield learn to live on a budget like the rest of us….