Recently a man named Mike Fanella wrote a letter to the Daily Herald newspaper calling Illinois’ proposed pension reform plan “brash” and that public employees were being “victimized” and “steamrolled” by media and politicians. The facts show something else – it is the taxpayers of Illinois that are being “victimized” and “steamrolled,” not the public [...]
With 75,000 Unemployed Teachers in Illinois, Why Don’t We Just Replace Any That Go On Strike?
January 20, 2012 By
There is perhaps no more frustrating action against the public than teachers’ strikes. While teachers have the advantage of being home with their kids every day after school, school holidays, and summer vacations and even during strikes non-teacher parents have to scramble for kid-coverage during those very same periods. Unfortunately here inIllinoisthe news is replete [...]
Top 100 IL School Salaries will pull down $1 billion in pension payments.
January 18, 2012 By
Once again when we compare compensation of IL K-12 educators with other states we find an enormous gap. Just looking at IL vs. WI we see a $164,000 premium for IL top administrator salary compared to WI. And in this particular case, the $368,000 is more like $400,000 for IL top administrator Harry Griffith from [...]
Gov Quinn: Fix Pensions ‘Once and For All.’
January 11, 2012 By
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn pledged Tuesday to reform the public employee pension system “once and for all” this spring. The Democratic governor said he’s willing to take on the ailing program in a year when every seat in the Legislature is up for election because the state’s contribution to five retirement plans is eating up [...]
Public Pensions: How Can they Survive?
January 9, 2012 By
Of great debate this coming election in Illinois, will be the fate of public pensions. What is a pension? According to Webster’s dictionary, a pension is defined as a fixed sum paid regularly to a person. A traditional pension plan, also called a defined benefit (DB) pension plan, is a pooled retirement plan that offers [...]
Pensions and Promises and Perfidy
January 4, 2012 By
Social Security isn’t the only pension system to over-rely on promises and skip the actual savings and investment part. Many a government employee pension system does the same. Not only do they unfairly shift burdens onto future retirees and future taxpayers, they also build up huge debt loads to whoever has done the promising. Click [...]
Don’t mess with Pension Reform
December 13, 2011 By
When it comes to state pensions and Springfield, nothing really is a surprise anymore. Lawmakers talk big about fixing the system and reforming an unsustainable model. But they do little about it. And they do even less to address the $85 billion hole the state is in for underfunding pension systems in years past. To [...]
Top 100 Teacher Salaries for 2011: Phys. Ed Teacher Heads List with $203,154.
December 12, 2011 By
As Illinoiscitizens struggle with the severe economic downturn plaguing the state, Illinois public school employees enjoy another record year of salaries, fringe benefits and pensions. In 2011 an amazing 14,866 public school employees made more than $100,000, up 18% from 2010’s 12,588. See Top 100 Teachers Salary here in Excel 2010 format. See Top [...]
ERO: How Benefit Enhancements Drive Up Pension Costs.
December 7, 2011 By
In my last article (see here), I documented how more than 130 benefit increases for the TRS (Teachers Retirement System) have been passed by the legislature since the “Pension Guarantee” amendment to the constitution was passed in 1970. The overwhelming majority of these benefits have been paid for by the taxpayer, not the employees. The [...]
America’s Public Sector Union Dilemma
December 6, 2011 By
A union is a form of monopoly, or cartel. It is a single seller of labor services to a business. This means that unions have the ability to raise compensation for its members above the level that would prevail in a competitive marketplace, as well as to define work rules for its members that reduce [...]
