Illinois pensions 101: Paltry contributions yield million-dollar payouts

By Adam Schuster
01/17/2020
Across all five state retirement systems, typical career workers pay for about 5% of the cost of their pension benefits. They receive an average of $1.7 million to $3.6 million.

TAGS: Edgar Ramp, fire pensions, firefighter pensions, GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, government employees, government services, government unions, government workers, IEA-NEA: Illinois Education Association, IFT: Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois, Illinois Constitution, Illinois General Assembly, Jim Edgar, JRS: Judges’ Retirement System, municipal government, municipal pensions, pension, pension benefits, pension contributions, pension costs, pension crisis, pension debt, pension guarantee, pension obligations, pension reform, pension spending, pensions, police pensions, public safety pensions, public sector, public sector unions, public unions, retirement, retirement age, Rod Blagojevich, SERS: State Employee Retirement System, Social Security, social services, Springfield, SURS: State Universities Retirement System, tax hikes, tax increase, tier 1, tier 2, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

2019 laws in review, Illinois lawmakers passed both nice and naughty bills

By Mindy Ruckman
12/20/2019
The Illinois General Assembly passed over 600 new laws in 2019. Some helped taxpayers, but many more hurt as they spent $85 billion while doing little to fix the pension crisis.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, capital plan, consolidation, Cook County, corruption, expungement, free speech, gas tax, government unions, Illinois, Illinois Constitution, Illinois General Assembly, JB Pritzker, lawmakers, Luis Arroyo, Martin Sandoval, Open Illinois Checkbook, progressive income tax, public employee unions, record sealing, Springfield, tax hikes, taxes, transparency, vehicle registration, worker freedom

How Illinois unions re-gifted member dues to Madigan for sexual harassment settlement

By Austin Berg
12/19/2019
So who wants to fund a highly unpopular politician’s sexual harassment settlement on behalf of a disgraced political worker under federal investigation? Executives at Illinois’ largest public-sector labor unions.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Alaina Hampton, Christmas, government unions, Illinois, Illinois General Assembly, Janus v. AFSCME, JB Pritzker, Kevin Quinn, lawsuit, Mike Madigan, PAC, public employee unions, public sector unions, public unions, SEIU: Service Employees International Union, sexual harrassment, Springfield, unions

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Power in payments: Illinois can help unbanked residents, save money by adopting best practices in payment methods

Each year, tens of billions of dollars flow through Illinois state government.1 These flows all depend on methods of payment. In deciding on those payment methods, policymakers must consider a number of important factors, including security controls, cost effectiveness, accessibility, speed and allowance for choice. This report shows that by adopting best practices across all...

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Ifeoma Nkemdi

Policy lessons from Illinois’ exodus of people and money

By J. Scott Moody, Wendy Warcholik
07/07/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016