By continuing practices such as automatic raises and taxpayer-subsidized platinum health insurance, along with a new $2,500 bonus, the AFSCME contract will transfer more than $3.6 billion in extra compensation from taxpayers to state workers.
Chicago’s mayor wants permission from Springfield to impose a new tax on high-end professional services and raise taxes on pricier home sales, as the city faces down a $1 billion deficit.
More than 9,000 Illinois school district administrators earn more than $100,000 a year. Each of them will collect at least $3 million in pension benefits during retirement.
A plan that allowed some pension enrollees to cash in early on their earned retirement benefits in exchange for curbing future benefits has so far generated only 3% of its expected savings.
The budget signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker included a $1,600 pay raise for the Illinois General Assembly – which already collects the nation’s 4th-highest base salary for state lawmakers.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.