-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Highest Lifetime Pension Payout The top public pensioner in Illinois is Dr. Abraham Edwards, a former orthopedic surgeon at the University of Illinois–Chicago. He has already received over $8.33 million in benefits since retiring in 2007. With future payouts, his expected lifetime payout is around $8.47 million en.wikipedia.org+13illinoispolicy.org+13illinoispolicy.org+13. 🎖️ Highest Annual Pension A 2025 study by Taxpayers United of America highlights several high-earners: Tapas Das Gupta (retired from UIC) collected $439,672 in his most recent annual pension, with a lifetime payout of about $5.2 million forbes.com+4taxpayersunitedofamerica.org+4illinoispolicy.org+4. Beverly Lopatka, a retiree from DuPage HSD 88, reportedly receives $399,652 per year, and is projected to… Read more »
So what? The state offered these people a pension and now they are paying out what is owed. If people have a problem with these payouts then don’t offer them to employees when they start their job. Oh wait, they did change tier 2 pensions to include a cap on the level of income that would be counted towards their pension benefits.
No need to hysterically whine about pensions being paid as they are required by law.
Sorry PPF, your first sentence is the root of your misunderstanding: “The state offered these people a pension and now they are paying out what is owed.” The facts are that evil and unconstitutional Public Sector ‘Worker’ Unions bribed and purchased corrupt Illinois politicians in order to steal from the taxpayers. Period. These ‘pensions’ are more accurately stolen loot and criminally ill gotten gains obtained via racketeering and collusion with politicians. The taxpayers don’t owe these grifters and parasites a red cent.
You’re talking about highway workers, state troopers, and state park employees. Maybe ease off the evil talk there, Tom, unless you are indeed a priest.
TPG knows that he wants to steal money from pensioners. He also knows that stealing is wrong so he has concocted this delusional belief that retired police officers, firefighters and teachers are somehow evil and so it’s ok to steal from them.
Thank you for your service as a state trooper. You performed a service to society that fewer and fewer people truly appreciate. Illinois promised you a pension for your years of service and you deserve every penny. Enjoy your retirement.
Nope. You’re not the arbiter of something being stolen versus a fair negotiated contract. The courts disagree with you and have told you and others who feel this way to go pound sand. The state of Illinois owes these pensioners and if you are a taxpayer in Illinois you will pay. They will be paid first no matter what your latest crazy theory that you spout. Period.
Rep Reick on todays Illinois In Foucs show is refreshing frankness on pensions. He’s stating that any pension fix plan outside of scrapping pension const amendment and negotiating a settlement is a dream, they’re to far gone to fund. The TIER II “fix” will only make this wourse….he see no political will “in his lifetime” for pols to face this reality …(or, in other words, sell your home and skedaddle FAST!!)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4JqQTgkW20)
SSWB is similar to RRB’s SSEB social security equivalent benefit even though railroad retires do not receive social security benefits.
In the private sector when a business does not have funds, it lays off employees. The last thing they do is start is give raises in pay & benefits unless they want to go bankrupt and screw all of their creditors.
In the private sector, they will double their prices if only a few customers stop doing business with them. Illinois still has plenty of “prices” to increase as very few “customers” are leaving. Plenty of tax increases available to get more revenue.
What you mean is there are still plenty of taxpayers to screw over. Some of which have not been born yet.
Nobody is getting screwed as everyone is a willing participant. As you’ve noted in many of your comments, people are free to leave the state if they don’t want to pay more in taxes. Instead they willingly stay and agree to pay more taxes. If McDonalds double their prices and you continue to eat there, that’s on you. Mcdonalds isn’t screwing you but rather maximizing profits. It’s just good business sense.
Are you blind? Businesses and taxpayers are fleeing the state in record numbers. That is a fact of life, and the remaining taxpayers will have to pick up the slack.
Illinois population went down 18k in the last census. Your constant blathering about EvErYoNe LeAvInG is completely false. That’s less than 0.2%. Real estate prices are up. Rents are up. If people were actually significantly fleeing we would see housing soften.
Most people don’t leave a state because of taxes and politics. They bitch and complain about leaving but few actually follow through. Plenty of tax revenue and more can be raised.
We have 500,000 illegals here that got counted in the census. What tells us whether people are leaving are the net interstate migration numbers. They are leaving, as we have documented throughly. And real estate prices and rents are driven by much more than migration. In our case, it’s lack of new supply.
Lack of new supply wouldn’t matter if Illinois actually lost significant population Mark. Existing supply would exceed demand. Yes people leave but overall Illinois population is flat. Oh and those illegal immigrants have children at a greater rate than native residents. All the “rich” are leaving and poor immigrants move in yet income tax revenue continues to increase. We have more income tax returns greater than 1 million than 10 years ago. We doubled the number of 500k households. Yes we are not doing as well as other states because of our flat population numbers but the sky is not… Read more »
PPF lives in the clouds.
In Illinois, households earning $500,000 or more annually are extremely rare—roughly the top 1–2% of earners statewide
Summary TableMetricValueMedian Household Income (2023)$80,300 – $81,700Per
Capita Income~$45,100
Avg Weekly Wage (Apr 2025)$1,177/week (~$61.1K/yr)
This is true but that’s true of most states. 98% of households in the US don’t make $500k a year. (Mine does.)
Like many commenters on the web, I think Mr (Miss? Mrs?) Leaving is just taking out their financial problems on the public at large. All storms pass, friend.
100 percent. He whines constantly about taxes in Illinois yet he said he already moved to Florida in prior comments. He used to go by the user name Poor Taxpayer but he became so unhinged that he kept copying and pasting the same comments over and over. It’s funny but also sad.
Nope. Just grounded in facts while you cry hysterically about the sky falling. Illinois has about 1.7% of its taxpayers with returns greater than 500k. That’s up from around 1% in 2010 and greater than the current national average of 1%. That means Illinois has 70% more 500k plus taxpayers compared to national norms.
Stick with the facts Poor Taxpayer.
many corporations which lay off employees for supposed financial savings continue to give huge bonuses to upper management & CEO’s and also use tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
“We sent in over $5 billion to the US federal government last year. If 800 other companies had done the same thing, no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime of federal taxes—no income taxes, no Social Security taxes, no estate taxes.”-Warren Buffett