Bill Zettler

(Originally posted 4-20-10.) Quinn: Pension Reform Will Save $400 Million in 2011. Zettler: Pension Deficit Will Increase More than $50 Billion by 2014. Governor Pat Quinn signed the pension reform bill and immediately claimed…

Why does Quinn want to raise taxes to make teachers millionaires? If we needed any more evidence that the Illinois public school system is of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers…

As Illinois taxpayers face the impossible task of how to pay at least $250 billion worth of pension taxes over the next 25 years, the question arises: how did we get to this point?…

How union bosses and politicians protected themselves at the expense of our children and grandchildren. When it comes to pensions, it is easy to manipulate public expectations, and therefore public beliefs, because the whole…

Why Illinois Pensions Are in Trouble: $29,238 Gets You $3.5 Million in Pension Payments. You don’t have to work long in the Illinois public schools to get multi-million dollar pensions. For example there is…

By Bill Zettler   Just because you read it in the papers doesn’t mean it’s true. Click to read the entire series. There are many supporters of the current pension system including union members,…

Let’s ask public employees to pay their fair share. According to the latest SBA (Small Business Administration) statistics there are over 1.1 million small businesses in Illinois. Their size ranges from one employee to…

By Bill Zettler Excess public salaries are the main driver of pension deficits. The dirty little secret of pension funding problems is the huge salaries public employees earn compared to their peers in the…

By Bill Zettler Help the needy or help the greedy? Illinois Dept. of Human Services (DHS) recently announced some planned cuts: DHS to cut $150 million, expected to affect 178,000 children and adults Dept….

By Bill Zettler If the pension rules in effect when the Constitutional guarantee was made were in effect now there would be no deficit. It is interesting to note that with all of the…

To Avoid Financial Armageddon Salaries, Pensions and Benefits Must Come Down. The city of Des Plaines has some very expensive part-time employees working at CCSD District 62 including a second grade teacher who makes…

By Bill Zettler (Originally posted 11-24-09.) The Pension Gravy Train Needs to End Before the State Is Bankrupted. The unfunded taxpayer pension liability in Illinois now approaches $80 billion. The state pension system continues…

(Originally posted 2-5-2010.) Tea parties are turning into “Pension Parties.” Evidence continues to pile up that out-of-control Illinois public pensions are on the minds of voters in Illinois. Last February’s primary added to that evidence…

If you listen to union representatives and their lackeys in the media you will hear this constant refrain: Illinois pension problems are the direct result of the taxpayers not paying their fair share over…