If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
Lawmakers conveniently ignore the full impact of inflation when it comes to ordinary Illinoisans. Take the personal exemption on the state income tax. For tax year 2023, the exemption will not rise with inflation as it should under current law. And that means a higher tax bill for everyone.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
When has any company persisted with a project in the face of stronger local, statewide and national opposition? When have taxpayers subsidized a more harebrained project?
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It is unbelievable all the ways to game the pension systems. The Tribune has been cranking out another series of articles including this one. They previously made a series of articles into an ebook available for purchase called Illinois Pension Games – Bad Decisions and Backroom Deals in Illinois’ Public Pension System. Bill Zettler wrote a book called Illinois Pension Scam. And then there’s the 1,500 pages of Illinois Pension Code with decades of benefit hiking public acts (laws) for the rank and file plus the gamers. There are websites such as this, Open the Books / For the Good… Read more »
Yep, we are well aware of the frustration of the paywall for some of our links. We do try to avoid them, but link to them anyway if they are particularly good, significant or exclusives. Same with stories cluttered with ads. We also try to keep our summaries short so as to avoid stealing content. Media has enough problems making ends meet as it is. I think we help by sending more readers to the good stories.
New Orleans’ municipal employees’ fund eliminated this abusive practice in 1979. Any plan which allowed such spiking was/is flirting with disaster, not to mention the ever-present threat of lawsuits charging unlawful discrimination (against supervisors who refused to allow spiking).
{Btw – links to Tribune stories are useless to any but Tribune subscribers – the paper is one of the VERY few in the US which prevents any viewing by nonsubscribers}
Pension spiking has been commonplace in Illinois for decades. It’s use varies greatly depending on a wide variety of factors, namely, do we think we can get away with it and maintain political power, and, can the employees dupe the board into thinking its necessary. It’s probably not a stretch to imagine a kickback or two has occurred from an employee to a board member. One of the hallmarks of Illinois pensions is variety and exceptions, allowing for the confusion of taxpayers and deflection of any criticism. This article is about pension spiking in IMRF. IMRF is one of the… Read more »