Institute in Northwest Herald: End Pensions for Legislators
The Illinois Policy Institute is featured in a story on the elimination of pensions for Illinois legislators.
Realizing legislator pensions are a tiny fraction of the state’s overall pension issues, we wholeheartedly support efforts to end them for Illinois lawmakers.
State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, has proposed House Bill 260, which would eliminate pensions for future legislators and end the General Assembly Retirement System.
Even as legislators have made some small strides in dealing with Illinois’ $83 billion pension deficits by putting restrictions on future retiring state employees and raising age requirements, we’re more than skeptical that legislators will be able to push themselves away from the state’s generous pension table. But we’d love to see this put to a vote.
Illinois legislators enjoy a base salary of $67,836 a year, plus a $139 a day per diem when in session, which the Illinois Policy Institute says is the fifth highest salary for state legislators in the nation. The General Assembly is in session for about six months a year, and many legislators have other jobs. For context, the median household income for McHenry County is $79,656.
We don’t expect legislators to do this work for free, but we’re puzzled as to why they are additionally compensated with pensions for part-time work.
After four years in office, legislators get 12 percent of their final salary at age 62, 27 percent of their final salary after eight years starting at age 55, 40 percent after 12 years, with 5 percent increases each additional year, maxing out at 85 percent after 20 years. They also get 3 percent cost-of-living raises on their pensions and don’t pay the state income taxes they just raised 67 percent.
Doesn’t it make it difficult for those legislators who have consciences to seriously address salary and pension matters for state employees, who work full time and sometimes in dangerous or demanding jobs, while they’re accumulating their own perks?