Jim Tobin Warmly Welcomed At The Ronald Reagan Breakfast Club

Rock Island – The Ronald Reagan Breakfast Club yesterday hosted a meeting to oppose the graduated income tax increase amendment promoted by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Invited as a guest speaker to the meeting was none other than TUA President Jim Tobin.


“The graduated income tax is another scam being pushed by lying Springfield politicians,” said Tobin. “The first scam was the Illinois state sales tax, which was sold as a temporary tax to get the state past the great depression. Then there was the state income tax that was promised to provide permanent property tax relief for home owners. After that was the ‘temporary’ toll roads. Now, after passing a $5 billion state income tax increase, Springfield tax thieves want more.”


The Ronald Reagan Breakfast Club meeting was hosted at The City Limits Saloon and Grill. The meeting room quickly became filled, with people spilling over into a second room. In the end, the meeting became standing room only. 


“I keep hearing about people leaving Illinois, which is true. However, meetings like this give me hope for Illinois. It shows that taxpayers are ready to fight against these ridiculous tax increases. If Pritzker thinks passing more income tax increases on Illinoisans will be easy, he is sorely mistaken.”


Click Here To View Top Rock Island County Pensions
Click Here To View Vote No Graduated Income Tax Flyer
Click Here to View 2019 Pension Report Overview

Rock Island Gov. Pensions Drive Higher Property Taxes

Rock Island

This story was featured by the Dispatch–Argus, KWQC TV, and WQAD TV. Another story on this release was run 9/19/2019 by WQAD TV.

Rock Island, IL – Taxpayer Education Foundation (TEF) today released its updated study on Rock Island County, Rock Island City, Moline, and East Moline government pensions including the top 200 pensions in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), and the State University Retirement System (SURS). Taxpayers United of America (TUA) issued the following statement based on the TEF pension study:

“Taxpayers in Rock Island County have been hit with yet another property tax increase. This time additional revenue of 11.9% is needed to keep the IMRF pensions afloat,” said Jim Tobin, president of TUA.

“The IMRF pension fund, which gives lavish, gold-plated pension benefits to retired municipal employees, is funded by property taxes. $903 million in property taxes have been shoveled into this fund to keep it afloat.”

Rock Island County has an effective property tax rate of 2.56%, according to Attom Data Solutions. The national average is 1.17% and the Illinois average is 2.22%.

“Taxpayers in Rock Island County sure aren’t getting their money’s worth. Their effective property tax rate is more than double the national average and even higher than the Illinois state average. The reason it is so high is because goonish politicians spend lavishly on gold plated, retired government employee pensions. Rock Island County taxpayers are paying for government services provided years ago. Sadly, there isn’t enough money left to pay for the services taxpayers need today.”

“The entire local and statewide pension system in Illinois is unsustainable. The other five statewide pension funds are funded by the state income tax. Democrat Governor Jay Robert ‘J. B.’ Pritzker and his tax-raising cronies want to stick it to middle class taxpayers by increasing the income tax under the guise of a ‘more fair’ graduated income tax, so they can make it through the next election cycle. When the state goes under, they will be enjoying their retirements in Arizona or Florida.”

“Middle-class Rock Island taxpayers would be decimated by the Pritzker income-tax hike if it passes. There is nothing fair about his ‘fair tax’ that will, by design, siphon even more wealth out of the pockets of the middle-class. And his tax increases won’t stop there as we’ve seen with Pritzker’s gargantuan gasoline tax-hike.”

“When you look at what individual government retirees are actually collecting in taxpayer funded pensions, you can get a better idea of why this theft of taxpayer wealth is so egregious. Keep in mind that the average taxpayer will collect about $17,500 a year from Social Security and that most IMRF pensioners are also eligible for a Social Security pension.”

Calvin Lee retired from Moline USD40 and currently collects $222,655 a year in taxpayer-funded pension payments. He contributed $390,120 into the TRS to fund his own pension which will total about $7.3 million over a normal lifetime.

Marshall Douglas receives benefits from the IMRF. His current annual pension is $155,673 and will accumulate to $2.5 million over a normal lifetime. He deposited $159,794 into his own pension. Marshall is also eligible for a social security pension.

Black Hawk College retiree, Bettie Truitt, retired at the age of 52 and currently collects $133,568 in pension payments. Taxpayers largely fund her estimated lifetime payout of $7,161,282 as she contributed only $187,423.

“All Illinois government new hires should be placed in a 401(k) style retirement savings account, beginning immediately, and the retirement age should be increased to 65. These measures would at least slow the bleeding until comprehensive pension reform can be enacted.”

Click here to see the top 200 Rock Island, Moline and East Moline TRS pensions
Click here to see the top 200 Rock Island, Moline and East Moline municipal,  and Rock Island County IMRF pensions
Click here to see the top Black Hawk SURS pensions

Quad-City Times | AFSCME, taxpayer group disagree on Illinois pensions

Taxpayers United of America’s operations director, Jared Labell, was quoted by Quad-City Times in an article about Taxpayers United of America’s recent pension release for both Rock Island County and Moline.


Visit website to see pension information

According to Jared Labell, of the Taxpayers United of America organization, the group’s website lists individual pensions of Rock Island and Moline municipal, Rock Island County, Rock Island County government teachers and Black Hawk College retirees. Visit www.taxpayersunited.org to see the list.

Rock Island County taxpayers bear the burden of millions of dollars in pensions that retired educators and municipal workers will collect for years to come, according to a Chicago-based taxpayers group.

Taxpayers United of America made a presentation on that contention — one of several presentations throughout the state — Wednesday at the Rock Island Holiday Inn.

But a representative from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, counters that most Illinois retirees receive only modest pensions.

Jared Labell, operations director of the taxpayers group, said about 930 Rock Island County teachers collect at least $50,000 annually. Statewide, more than 12,000 Illinois pensioners collect six-figure pensions, and more than 85,893 retirees collect more than $50,000, he said.

“On average, these government pensioners contribute only about 5.5 percent to their own retirement payout,” he said. “In the private sector, employees pay 15 percent of every dollar they earn into Social Security for an average pension of only $15,000.”

But Anders Lindall, public affairs director at AFSCME Council 31, Chicago, calls the taxpayers group and similar organizations “pension-cutting lobby groups.”

He said the average pension in the state is $32,000 a year.

“We’re talking about the life savings of teachers, police, firefighters, nurses and other public-service workers who live in our communities throughout Illinois,” Lindall said.

Eight in 10 of those workers are ineligible for Social Security, Lindall said. “So, their modest pension is their primary, if not their only, source of income in retirement.”

When they are working, teachers, police officers and other public employees pay significantly into their own pensions, Lindall said. He said workers typically pay 8-12 percent of every paycheck toward their pension.

 “The pension debt, which is real, is caused not by employees doing anything wrong; they always pay their share. It’s caused not by benefits being too expensive, and it’s certainly not caused by the few radical exceptions — outliers — that these pension-slashing lobby groups like to trot out,” Lindall said.

The taxpayer group’s Labell gave examples of local retirees with pensions near or surpassing $100,000, including Calvin D. Lee, former superintendent of Moline-Coal Valley School District, who according to the taxpayer group’s research, receives $197,826 in annual pension payments.

Another retiree, former Rock Island County Sheriff Michael T. Huff, receives $97,291 in annual pension payments, Labell said.

AFSCME’s Lindall said the pension debt was caused by legislators who didn’t set aside enough money to pay benefits. “It’s regrettable that they (the taxpayer group) attract any attention at all. They’re not adding anything productive to the conversation.”

He said it’s important to understand that the problem is the decades-long failure of politicians at the state level to set aside adequate resources.

“The answer is ending that practice and for the state to pay what it owes,” Lindall said. “Many people have talked about ways to make those costs more manageable — for example, re-amortizing the pension debt — a mathematician’s word for refinancing your mortgage.”

Creative and constitutional solutions like that that should be considered, Lindall said.

The taxpayer group’s Labell suggests putting new state employees on a 401(k) retirement plan. He emphasized that he is not demonizing people who receive pensions. Pointing out what someone is making through a pension “puts a more ‘real’ spin on it,” he said.

The average person’s Social Security pension is $15,000, he said. Compared to that, the pensions he discussed “are just astronomical,” he said.

“We are technically these peoples’ employers,” Labell said. “I think we have a right to know this information.”

Taxpayers United of America calls itself a “pro-taxpayer, nonprofit, non-partisan organization,” Labell said, adding that the organization is “not indebted” to any political party.

AFSCME represents mostly public employees at all levels of government and is the largest public employee union in the country with 1.4 million members.