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Most people have to wait until they're out of a job to begin collecting retirement benefits they accrued while working there. That's not the case for at least 13 part-time suburban county board members who are receiving as much as $82,124 in annual pension payouts from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund for jobs in which they're still getting salaries of $21,000 to $43,018.
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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This is still legal in Illinois aka Double Dipping. Former Gov Walker in Wisconsin made this illegal but grandfathered in approx 8000 . Now in Wi. you must suspend your pension if you go back to work. Here in Illinois it is more common than not to retire in the public sector and even get rehired by the same organization and collect a hefty salary to boot. Sometimes they can get a second pension working elsewhere. School superintendents can do this if they get hired in another state.