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Illinois Teacher Pensions

And the legalized pension fraud continues. Sweeteners, Illinois style:
Which gouge most enrages you? Is it the injury Bob Molaro inflicts on you and every Illinois taxpayer? Or is it the spiteful insult from his enabler Ed Burke?

The injury: As the Tribune and WGN-TV reported Friday, all it took for former state Rep. Molaro to nearly double his public pension was spending one month as an aide to Ald. Ed Burke, chairman of the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee. Under Illinois' diabolical pension math, Molaro's $12,000 pay for that month pushed his pension from about $64,000 a year to more than $120,000. Over his expected life span, he'll collect some $3 million.

The insult: During this monthlong scam which begat lifelong dividends, little taxpayer, Burke and Molaro were sneering at you. Burke had Molaro, his fellow Democrat, write a 19-page white paper about Chicago's ailing pension funds. Can't you see the two of them delighting in Molaro's term paper — his work product consists mainly of public information readily available from pension funds — while they're … grabbing pension funds! Is that delicious or what?

This being Illinois, you can trust that the city and state pension funds jointly shunting taxpayer money to Molaro are severely underfunded. Which means that, like all the pension grabs that the Tribune and WGN-TV are detailing, this puts rank-and-file public workers at personal financial risk: If and when Illinois governments cannot sustain their eventually unsustainable pension promises, taxpayers' attention will turn with a vengeance toward all these insiders who today are draining so many of your dollars from those funds.
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Yet another example of a practice that contributes to the underfunding of Illinois public pensions. But of course the unions say nothing, because they figure the taxpayers will just pick up the tab eventually. We taxpayers, OTOH, will revolt eventually.
 
Well it sounds like the pension plan pays a percentage based on your highest month's salary. Whoever negotiated that plan was an idiot - for just this sort of reason. Most other government plans are your top three years. A month is nuts.
 
Robrob said:
Well it sounds like the pension plan pays a percentage based on your highest month's salary. Whoever negotiated that plan was an idiot - for just this sort of reason. Most other government plans are your top three years. A month is nuts.
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Your naivete is so refreshing!

This isn't about sound management of pensions, it's about buying votes and rewarding political loyalty at the expense of the taxpayer.
 
WildCat said:
And the legalized pension fraud continues. Sweeteners, Illinois style:

Yet another example of a practice that contributes to the underfunding of Illinois public pensions. But of course the unions say nothing, because they figure the taxpayers will just pick up the tab eventually. We taxpayers, OTOH, will revolt eventually.
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But you taxpayers made a PROMMMIIISSSSEE!! You HAVE to keep your word! Better to go into financial ruin than to break a promise. Right?;)
 
WildCat said:
Yet another example of a practice that contributes to the underfunding of Illinois public pensions. But of course the unions say nothing, because they figure the taxpayers will just pick up the tab eventually. We taxpayers, OTOH, will revolt eventually.
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Will the taxpayer really revolt eventually? As mentioned, public pensions are underfunded through out the U.S. but I see nothing done about it except a few rants now and then the media. Is there a political party or individual politicians that are really going to take on the American Federation of Teachers, The Teamsters or any of the other big unions? I just don't see that happening.
 
Alt+F4 said:
Will the taxpayer really revolt eventually? As mentioned, public pensions are underfunded through out the U.S. but I see nothing done about it except a few rants now and then the media. Is there a political party or individual politicians that are really going to take on the American Federation of Teachers, The Teamsters or any of the other big unions? I just don't see that happening.
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Agreed. Look at Greece. The rioters/revolters where not the honest taxpayers, it was the pensioners complaining about the necessary cuts.
 
Alt+F4 said:
Will the taxpayer really revolt eventually? As mentioned, public pensions are underfunded through out the U.S. but I see nothing done about it except a few rants now and then the media. Is there a political party or individual politicians that are really going to take on the American Federation of Teachers, The Teamsters or any of the other big unions? I just don't see that happening.
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Per capita, no other state is in the mess that Illinois is in. Keep throwing straw on the camel's back, eventually it will break.
 
Alt+F4 said:
Will the taxpayer really revolt eventually? As mentioned, public pensions are underfunded through out the U.S. but I see nothing done about it except a few rants now and then the media. Is there a political party or individual politicians that are really going to take on the American Federation of Teachers, The Teamsters or any of the other big unions? I just don't see that happening.
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Well, Wisconsin elected a new governor last year, and he made a few minor changes.
You may have heard of him in the news once or twice. :D

Column in USA Today

Here's why the stakes in Wisconsin are so high. Public employee unions understand that the legitimacy of collective bargaining privileges is now in question, as cash-strapped states struggle under the burden of a costly public sector. If they can knock off Walker, they send a powerful signal to other reform-oriented governors not to target collective bargaining.
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They are going all out to destroy Walker. If you interfere with the mob's union's business, you get whacked*.

*metaphorically speaking. Although, if he survives the recall, I wouldn't be surprised if one of those whackjobs tries...
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
Looks like the gravy train is over.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_e520025e-37bb-11e1-a035-0019bb30f31a.html
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They got rid of some of the abuses the Chicago Tribune uncovered, the feeling is that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The Tribune says they're investigating many more tips since those stories broke.

Oh, and the guys who taught for one day to qualify for a state teacher's pension are going to sue over the loss. The gall of these guys is unbelieveable.
 
Gov. Quinn suggests tossing more mental patients out on the street and cutting billions in Medicaid services to the poor to keep the pension payments coming:
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn will deliver a bad-news budget today, suggesting that Illinois close numerous prisons, mental health centers and social service offices, cut health care for the poor and shut down popular tourist sites for two days a week at times during the year.

Money for schools would remain essentially flat -- a better fate than the 9 percent cuts most state agencies would suffer.

The problem is the same as it's been for years at the Capitol -- there's not enough money coming in while costs are rising. The quick math: The state expects to take in about $700 million more during the financial year that starts July 1. State worker pension costs alone will rise by more than $1 billion.

"There's no new money for anything else, that's the squeeze," said David Vaught, Quinn's budget director.
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The pension monster keeps getting bigger and bigger, like the blob. Soon it will devour us all. :p

Meanwhile, the non-partisan Civic Federation released a report warning of the looming disaster:
...The full 53-page report is available at www.civicfed.org/iifs.

“The Governor and General Assembly must act now,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation. “Failure to address unsustainable trends in the State’s pension and Medicaid systems will only result in financial disaster for the State of Illinois.” The Federation’s five-year budget projection shows the State’s backlog of unpaid bills increasing from $9.2 billion at the end of FY2012 to $34.8 billion at the end of FY2017.

...The increase in the State’s unpaid bills is driven largely by an unsustainable rise in State Medicaid costs. According to an analysis by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, current trends of rising Medicaid costs and insufficient State Medicaid appropriations could cause the backlog of unpaid Medicaid bills to reach a staggering $21.0 billion by the end of FY2017.

...Rising pension costs will also contribute to the State’s potentially paralyzing load of unpaid bills. Pension funding problems were exacerbated by investment losses in FY2008 and FY2009 but are mainly due to a history of insufficient State funding for the pension system. As of June 30, 2011, the five retirement systems in the State of Illinois had total unfunded liabilities of $83.1 billion and a combined funded ratio of 43.3%.
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Apparently, being employed by the state of Illinois is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country - an Illinois House study found that 12-13% of state workers file a workers compansation claim at some point - a rate far higher than other states and the private sector. In Texas, for example, the figure is 1%. The Feds are already investigating workers at Menard prison, who have filed for millions of dollars in wrist injury claims, supposedly from opening and closing cell doors.

You know things are bad when Mike Madigan is taking on the unions.
 
Recall seeing this bit about Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel taking on the teachers unions. No mention on pensions in the short article, but would guess this is a first of many more confrontations to come.

To many promises with other peoples money have been made by politicians in order buy votes. If planning to rely upon a pension in retirement, might not be a bad idea to have a back up plan.

"Rahm Takes on the Blue Model"

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/02/29/rahm-takes-on-the-blue-model/
 
Bump!

Well here we are a year later, and Illinois pols have yet to do a damned thing to reform the pension system. The amount it's underfunded now approaches $100 billion, and is growing by $17 million per day because nothing is being done.

And today the SEC accuses Illinois of security fraud for hiding from investors the true state of the pension system.

As pensions eat up an ever-larger proportion of Illinois' budget basic government services are being cut. According to Gov. Quinn within 2 years we will be spending more on pensions than we are on education.

And just so everyone knows, this thread is about all Illinois state pensions, not just the teacher's pensions. A mod titled this thread, not me!
 
How many of these scam artists are going to rot in the same prison as Bernie Madoff? I'm not holding my breath.
 
ravdin said:
How many of these scam artists are going to rot in the same prison as Bernie Madoff? I'm not holding my breath.
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Unfortunately the SEC has little jurisdiction over a state and can do little more than call them out on it.

Illinois, of course, "admits no wrongdoing".

But if a private pension fund acted like this someone would be going to prison.
 
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