By Kate Campaigne Piercy
Today the Sun-Times asks, "Want to retire with a fat pension?"
It answers, "Get a government job in Illinois."
Here's an incredible account of what government retirees are raking in at the expense of taxpayers and while ever-increasing benefits put local municipalities in a stranglehold as they try to provide residents with core government services.
Consider some of the soaring numbers below:
3,958 retirees have pensions paying $100,000 or more a year.
2,255 of those retirees have each collected more than $1 million
in pension benefits. They include two doctors who have each gotten more
than $3 million over the last 10 years.
14,280 retirees have pensions that pay them more than their final
salaries. That's largely because all government pensions in Illinois
automatically increase 3 percent every year.
11,521 retirees get checks from two or more government pension plans.
23 widows each get more than $100,000 a year, every year, in survivor benefits.
16 judges' widows have each gotten more than $1 million since their husbands died.
The Sun-Times continues:
It's a frightening picture. It costs more than $800 million a month for
state and local governments to cover their pension burden, according to
a first-of-its-kind Sun-Times analysis of data obtained from the 17
largest retirement plans for government workers in Chicago, Cook County
and the state of Illinois. Those plans cover 374,041 retired government
workers or their survivors.
Pension reform is long overdue. State and city pensions are underfunded by an estimated $90 billion. Lawmakers in Springfield need to end their irresponsible avoidance and management of the growing pension system.
One reform idea: Implement a two-tier system. Require all new hires enroll into a defined-contribution system. All current employees can stay in the present defined-benefit system, as promised to them upon employment. However, if they would like to switch over to defined contribution, they could.
This is just one reform idea. Look for more to come from the Institute soon. Want to do something about the pension problem? Contact us.
