Illinois lawmakers are planning to sweeten the pension benefits of government workers yet again. Not only will this balloon the state’s already massive debts, but it will also hit taxpayers right in their wallets.
Join Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau and Breakthrough Ideas’ Jeanne Ives for a special Facebook Live event all about Illinois’ pension crisis and how it impacts ordinary Illinoisans.
Where: https://www.facebook.com/RealBreakthroughIdeas
When: TODAY, Thursday, March 13th at 7:00 pm
For a sneak peek of what Ted will talk about, take a look at the slides below.
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.
It’ll be interesting to see in the next 10 years the rate of exodus from IL as items such as the following become reality: progressive income tax; retirement income tax; mileage tax on top of gas tax; and continuing, big leaps in property taxes, to name a few.
Certainly, many residents’ thresholds of pain will be exceeded even if only some of these items become reality. Will these residents pack up and leave, or simply increase their thresholds of pain? Of course, those unwilling to take any higher level of pain will move.
No one has sold more Florida Real Estate than Illinois taxman.
When you leave do not tell anyone where you came from, lie about otherwise you look foolish.
You have the freedom to leave Illinois and not pay for this.
Otherwise don’t expect sympathy from the other 49 states.
We need a national right to work law and Federal laws limiting ALL government employee unions’ obscene powers or even outright bans on their existence. DOGE gives me a glimmer of hope something could be done to stop the parasites. A federal apparatus for state bankruptcy restructuring would be great too, it would trump the ill begotten gains of pension parasites in states like IL who rigged the constitutions with the mob’s help back in the 70s.
Almost all public sector workers weren’t even old enough to vote for the changes in the constitution in 1970. They were hired into one of these positions and offered a pension. The state taxpayers agreed to it before they were ever employed. Now the state owes them. It’s not ill gotten gains to be paid what you were told you would be paid. There is no bankruptcy happening for states any time soon and pensioners will continue to be paid. Public employees performed their end of the contract and they will be paid accordingly with a 3% increase each and… Read more »
Pension haters are gonna hate no matter how logical an explanation is given. Apply for a job in a municipality and it most likely has the pension plan as part of the employment. The applicant has no choice, take the job, take the pension or there’s the door and you are not hired. I was a city employee, hired at the age of 21 and was automatically enrolled in the pension plan. Paid into the plan every check @9,25% right off the top and never took the position for a pension that I couldn’t even imagine that was 35 yrs… Read more »
Well stated and I realize that most of these pension haters don’t follow logic on this topic but it will sink in for some. For some it’s pure jealousy. Just like you, most people in their twenties weren’t taking a job because of the retirement benefits the employer offered. Now that they are retired or close to it, they realize how great it would have been to have a pension and are jealous at the thought of you and “lowly” public employees getting something that you don’t. Others aren’t jealous but know that taxes will need to go up to… Read more »
Nobody here (other than maybe me) is against pensions entirely. Most people want pension reform to make all pensions like your pension – no cola, pay your own insurance, make contributions….there’s a lot of people out there making $$$$$, scamming the system, getting six figure pensions for 20, 30 years after they retire, with 3% cola every year. That’s unsustainable and is leading to the state’s fiscal collapse.
I have nothing against pensions but what has always concerned me is HOW the pension itself is calculated. You said that 9.25% was taken out every paycheck for your entire work career but it seems that the pension is calculated by the 4 highest earning years out of the last 10. So what is the purpose of the contributions every paycheck if it is not part of the final pension calculation? Do you know if your pension is based on lifetime contributions or the 4 highest years? Calculating the four highest years increases the amount substantially. If the public pensions… Read more »
Retirees do not rely on current contributions. It is money coming from the govt via tax payers.
Well I guess that the 9.25% from employees which equals a couple hundred million dollars a year just vanishes into thin air? You are so off base it’s amazing. The 9.25% of employee pension contributions along with an amount contributed by the city makes up the pension funds reserves. Perhaps if the city didnt take pension holidays when they failed to contribute the funds required by law and in the long term cost the funds a couple of billion plus dollars there wouldn’t be a mess that there is today. Do some research before posting your nonsense
Research, research—he don’t need no damned research!
The govt pays you X. It claims that .0925X goes to pensions. Where did X come from?
Using that logic, no one has ever paid into social security either.
You may want to take a course on logic.
Face it, this is a moron
Marko for Governor!
Fantastic job Ted, Kieth & Jeanne!!! Very disappointing, but I see BGA has a new “Pension Page” (https://www.bettergov.org/pensions-hub/) on their website that appears to have a lot of input from Martire/CTBA and the usual machine folks. Of course zero input from WP or IPI. Even more disappointing but very interesting, is linked Youtube BGA sponsored PENSION panel discussion from 3 months ago(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcqaHlsCzpQ) featuring Sen Martwick, Rep Kifowit, Dep Gov Andy Manar & Rep Reick. The panel discussion’s supposed to be about state pension mess, but is 90% about “fixing” TIER 2: Dem machine ghouls- Martwick & Kifowit are 100% behind… Read more »
Also, interesting at about 1:09 Manar claims CPS is able to include CTU pension costs as part of their EBF which none of the other states crazy 852 schools districts are able to claim…..something to consider for all you suburban wp’ers as ctu lands another highest paid in nation deal that they will be looking for state chump taxpayers to pick up part of the $tab$$$$$
The information in this article is stunning. Wirepoints has done story after story about this issue as well as proactively chased Politicians…nothing is going to be done about it. The pension posted on the slide are obscene. Millions of dollars paid to people for work that did not produce anything and never created a single job. Nothing being done in Public Schools is worth this kind of money – nothing. When you couple that with the dismal results…WTF? Pathetic and sad. We already pay the highest in taxes in the Country…where is this money going to come from? You know.… Read more »
Damn, no FB. To be truthful, I am proud to have never joined FB :’).
I must get out this spring/summer/fall to a face to face event to meet everyone.
Though my goal still remains to see Illinois out of my rear view mirror.
Even now under Tier 2 police, judges and legislators are treated much better than other employees. That needs to STOP and STOP now. No more privileged cast.
I would like to see some real solutions put forward. Tier 1 employees are protected by the Illinois Constitution. That would have to be changed through a CA and would not legally affect those already retired but would place existing employees on a “Two Tier system within the One Tier”. Past earnings under the present Tier 1 language and new earnings under a different formula. As to those already under Tier 2, well that has to be examined. Some are saying that it does not equal SS and that is illegal. I do not know the answer to this. It… Read more »
These state pensions need to be investigated and overhauled. Politicians need to only collect for last position held that the served a full term, not for every position held. If somebody collecting a pension, they cannot work in any capacity for their employer, including consulting. Education superintendent pension need to be the same for all school districts and not exorbitant. The money train needs to stop.
They have been scrutinized by the courts and they have determined that they must be paid. You can’t require people to not make other income while receiving a pension either. It’s been investigated that you can’t overhaul existing pension rules once the employee has been hired. What else you got?
Trump does not keep his contracts so why should Illinois?
Nothing to do with Illinois. Pensions are a solid contract that the state isn’t avoiding.
So are the vendors. It’s happening.https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/faced-with-fiscal-fiasco-city-of-chicago-asks-vendors-for-3-discount/
Haha. It’s not even remotely the same. The CITY is ASKING for a 3% discount. They are free to ask and the vendors are free to tell them to pound sand. They know the pensioners will be paid first. Probably why they are asking vendors instead. Although even this alderman knows it isn’t “happening”.
So what is it that you think is actually “happening” Mark? Just as the alderman noted, the pensioners don’t need to do sh*t.
So, the only answer is to keep raising taxes till everyone has left the state.
People will leave the state but it won’t be like a Syria or Ukrainian exodus. What will happen over a generation is that the state will become poorer and poorer as more tax dollars are siphoned off to pay for pensions, infrastructure will crumble, property values will tank, and so on. All of Illinois will look like Rockford and we’re already halfway there. We won’t attract higher paying new residents, and the Big 10 to Chicago pipeline will dry up. New jobs won’t materialize and hiring will nearly completely stop. We are turning into a state like Michigan where there’s… Read more »
Everyone isn’t leaving the state Poor Taxpayer. The state has raised taxes and it continues to collect more revenue.
However, the answer to what must be done is up to the voters. Should we cut spending and new programs and actuarially fund the pensions or should we keep spending too much on other items and continue to raise taxes. I prefer cutting spending but the voters continue to reward the spenders.
PPF, read this closely from 2017. Deny it all you want, but IT’S HAPPENING. Slowly for now, then all at once — that time is coming. https://wirepoints.org/its-happening-wp-original/
The final nail in coffin will happen when “retail” chump homeowners (me) throw in the towel and start selling for peanuts or simply walking away…that hasn’t happen quite yet. All the ARPA-COVID $cash$ was a temporary reprieve. A few moves by Trump admin could bring things to a quick conclusion, hopefully not in a recession…until then expect no end to the shameless three-card mounting of dopey taxpayers.
Yet, real estate has increased from a median of $235k in the Chicago metro area in 2017 to a median price of $295k. Why would you sell for pennies on the dollar when real estate continues to grow? It hasn’t “happened quite yet” because it would be foolish.
You have predicted doom and gloom for so long you’re actually hoping for it to happen. That’s messed up.
tons of articles on Chicago area real estate being: some of lowest home value growth in country next to lowest new home starts per 1,000 some of highest rates of underwater mortgages in country multifamily housing start are a complete disaster with next to no new construction etc etc here’s a recent one from ATTOM (https://www.attomdata.com/news/most-recent/q4-2024-housing-impact-report-2/) The most at-risk counties included Cook, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties in Illinois, two in New York City (Kings County, which covers Brooklyn, and Richmond County, which covers Staten Island) and two in the New York City suburbs (Essex and Passaic counties in… Read more »
you state, “Yet, real estate has increased from a median of $235k in the Chicago metro area in 2017 to a median price of $295k.” which I believe is about a 3% avg increase over 7 yrs?? Which I believe is pretty horrible home value appreciation compared nationally. Especially compared to south (FL, TX, SC, NC metro areas)
Yes Illinois real estate is growing at a slow steady pace compared to other areas that saw massive growth. That’s not selling for “pennies on the dollar”. If anything it prevents a massive bubble that other states are beginning to experience. This slower growth allows future generations more affordable housing as well as prevent people from moving to another state. Real estate has had massive growth in Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, etc… So now when people state “EvErYoNe Is LeAvInG” we know that it isn’t true because people can’t afford the expensive real estate in these other states. Now when the… Read more »
So your source that something is “happening” is an article that you wrote almost 8 years ago that something is going to “happen”. lol Just for laughs, let’s take a look at your some of your predictions that “it’s happening”. “the tax base is eroding and the state’s revenue is declining, all while the underlying causes remain unaddressed and debt soars for the state and most of its municipalities.” Did the state revenue decline like you predicted Mark? No, it went from around 36 billion to 54 billion. The state’s credit rating was also raised. “Major stories are ignored. For… Read more »
Inflation adjusted it is DOWN. The state has taxed away the equity.
Here in an opinion piece from Center Square about JB and the non stop tax increases.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/opinion/article_83530e88-ff88-11ef-9c70-6bfb089f5260.html
Unsustainable, the only hope for the taxpayer is a full tank of gas and take it as far away from Illinois as you can.
This is the largest generational theft in history. The Federal government will not bail Illinois out, they already have their own issues with debt.
They sure do and gold is going north of 3K any day now. How’s that for a vote of confidence?