CHICAGO— Retired Chicago police and firemen receive lavish, gold-plated pensions, and, according to Jim Tobin, President of the Illinois Taxpayer Education Foundation (ITEF), the reason Governor Patrick Quinn signed Senate Bill 3538, the $500,000,000 Chicago property tax increase, is to pump more taxpayer dollars into extravagant city pensions. The bill also forces local governments to raise property taxes statewide to fund local pensions, instead of requiring real pension reforms.
“I acknowledge that firemen and police have high-risk jobs,” said Tobin, “but that is no reason to force taxpayers to fund pensions that are making pension millionaires of many of these retirees.”
Jim Tobin announces the top pensions for Chicago's Police and Firemen to WGN TV, FoxTV Chicago, and ABC TV 7 at a News Conference held at the ITEF office Tuesday, February 8.
“Those receiving the largest annual pensions are retired Chicago police,” said Tobin, “and the proposed property tax increase pumps even more tax dollars into these pension funds. Of the top 10,000 police pensions, the average annual pension is a whopping $48,900. The largest annual police pension went to Philip Cline, whose annual pension is $146,973– $12,248 a month. Another retired Chicago cop, Dana Starks, is pulling in $11,243 a month with his pension, that’s $134,924 annually. Terry Hillard, another retired Chicago cop, is pulling in a lavish $140,701 annual pension.”
“The property tax increase will also pour more tax dollars into the Chicago firemen pension fund, which provides an average annual pension of $58,900 to its 2,560 pensioners. The largest pension goes to James T Joyce, who received an annual pension of $137,800 — $11,483 a month. James Kehoe is a close second with an annual pension of $126,650, which comes out to $10,554 a month. Another top pensioner is Norbert Diaz whose monthly pension is $10,325– $123,910 a year!”
“With the median fulltime wage for Chicago area households at $36,900 and the unemployment rate now at 9%, Chicago property tax increases to pay these extravagant pensions are inexcusable, and pension plan reforms are needed. The Chicago City Council and Mayor must end pensions for all new government, which hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions; putting new government hires into social security and 401(k)s would achieve this. Furthermore, requiring public employees to pay for one-half of their health care premiums would save even more.”
***Thanks to the keen eyes of our readers, it was brought to our attention that there was an error in the Top Chicago Police Pensions list released last week. We apologize for the misinformation, and thank our ever-watchful readers for spotting the error. The revised list can be viewed by clicking the link below.***
Click here to view the revised top pensions for Chicago Police.
Click here to view the top pensions for Chicago Firemen.
Click here to view Troopergate-Part 2.
Click here to view this article as a PDF.
You should research what you are talking about. A percentage of everyone employees salaries are payed in to pensions just like your own 401k.
Dont blame all of the Police & Firemen for something we have no control over if you must Blame somebody Blame the Daley Family and all of the past & present City Council for the mis management of the money that they are in control over..Regular police & Fireman work hard for what they get, Working Holiday,s & weekends that normal people have off to spend with there family,s Big Boss,s are mostly CLOUT jobs in the City everybody knows It..Where have you been !!!!!! DONT BLAME THE LITTLE GUY…
I see that Mr. Tobin is a very gullible man. and ignorant if he thinks that pensions are the cause of tax increases. What needs to be reformed is what these politicians are feeding us, this belief that the pensions are this cause of Govt. short falls. What needs to be reformed is the welfare system, how much does that cost tax payers year after year? How about the lavish pensions and health care packages these politicians are receiving? and most are getting more than one pension, Why? Oh yes lets not forget about Govt. waste there certainly isn’t any of that. So I say Mr Tobin it’s time you open your eyes and close your mouth. When you actually go to work and put your life on the line than maybe you would know that a pension is well deserved by all emergency responders across this great country of ours.
Please remind your readers that this is not the Firefighters, Paramedic and Police officers that is going to the fire or police stations everyday. The State of Illionis Pass a so called “Brass Bill” and this covered exempt rank remembers only …
Mr. Tobin, I am not a fat cat retired government employee. As someone who has to live on a limited income while paying my mortgage, I thank you for the research you are doing. Believe me, there are a lot more of us out there than there are retired government types, and we vote! Thank you!
Most retired persons I know get about $1,500 a month from Social Security, and, if they’re lucky, a small pension in addition to that.
Are we really supposed to feel sorry for retired government bureaucrats who get pensions of “only” $40,000 or $50,000 a year? These guys are living in a bubble, and their bubble is about to burst. They are totally disconnected from reality.
These pensions are ridiculous. Asking to see the bottom 10,000 pensions doesn’t excuse the excessiveness of these top ones.
Reform needs to happen, Illinois will just sink deeper in dept if things continue this way.
I think the average guy probably doesn’t get a huge pension but that doesn’t make it right that some do. I get barely enough social security to cover my bills but I still pay tax to help pay for some of these big pensions. That is not right to me. I am a good citizen and don’t mind paying my share for things so I am not saying that people should not get paid. But I am not sure how much I should pay for someone who is not even working or paying taxes and never paid much for there own retirement.
The truth of the matter is the Gold Brass group get promoted to high paying rank in just enough time to “earn” high pensions. The system is ripping the pension plans. If I had invested what the city charged me in pension payments I would have had much more money and future. The funding was do-able when enacted but the politicians plundered the money on pet projects ignoring funding obligations. Remind you of SS. or does supporting everyone under 18 in N. Korea a better idea.
Lets see, there is Tom Byrne, another Daley higher-up “brown nose” trying to pad his pension with another City pension, that he could eventually receive. Then there is the Illinois State politician (among many) who retired with a pension of over $70.000 a year, and took another position with the State of Illinois, worked for only a few weeks at this new position, retired again from that position, and received approximately $40 or $50 thousand dollars more added on to his first pension for life ! Call the BGA for more information.
Illinois State politicians and these City higher-ups are to blame for the financial mess we are in today. Stop blaming the average police officer and fireman for the financial problems we now have !