Yes, Public School Districts Should Pay for Pensions
Those who create the costs should pay for the costs. My, my, there is certainly a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over Gov. Quinn’s proposal to ask the local school district’s to…
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Retired College Teacher With $152,000 Pension Claims Pension Reform is Theft
Michael Corn, a retired college teacher, recently wrote a letter-to-the-editor at the Daily Herald equating the unfunded Illinois pension system with theft. And I agree it is theft but I would argue the thief…
Read MorePension Reform Plan: Taxpayer Costs Must be Fixed, not Unlimited
“If 50 people say you’re drunk you probably ought to lie down.” – Jim Rockford, Rockford Files The discussions going on in Springfield regarding pension reform still have not addressed the key concern: taxpayers…
Read MorePlunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives, and Bankrupting the Nation
Here’s the opening of Chris Edwards’ latest column: Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that there are more union members in the public sector than in the private sector in the United…
Read More10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About IL State Pensions.
1. Taxpayers have contributed more, not less, than the 1995 Fifty year pension funding law required. Most people are familiar with the 1995 pension funding law that set up a schedule of payments that would…
Read MoreTaxpayers Have Contributed 230% More Than Teachers Since 2001
An unending cascade of misinformation continues to come out of Springfield, union headquarters and the media so let me say it loud and clear: We Taxpayers Have OVERPAID Into Pensions Not UNDERPAID. Let’s…
Read MoreTeacher Unions Dump $1.4 Million into March 2012 IL Primary
The fight to maintain $100,000 salaries and multi-million dollar pensions is expensive and no one knows this better than the teachers. When you have the highest teacher salaries and pensions in the country and…
Read MoreChicago Tribune: Lawmaker hits pension jackpot
The silly people who make up the Chicago Tribune editorial board are shocked, shocked! at the fact that retiring state rep Roger Eddy is cashing in big time when it comes to his public…
Read MoreWhy Is Illinois’sTop Teacher Salary $108,000 More Than Kentucky’s?
And $95,000 more than WI and $92,000 more than IA and $83,000 more than MO? Or to put it another way why is IL top teacher salary more than twice as much as Kentucky’s…
Read MoreAnatomy of a Teacher’s Contract: Blueprint for a Taxpayer Mugging
One More Reason Why Illinois Needs A “Fairness In Compensation Act.” I recently received, via a Freedom of Information Act request, a copy of the most recent teachers’ contract with High School District 214 inArlington…
Read MoreLTE calls pension reform “brash.” I disagree.
Recently a man named Mike Fanella wrote a letter to the Daily Herald newspaper calling Illinois’ proposed pension reform plan “brash” and that public employees were being “victimized” and “steamrolled” by media and politicians….
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With 75,000 Unemployed Teachers in Illinois, Why Don’t We Just Replace Any That Go On Strike?
There is perhaps no more frustrating action against the public than teachers’ strikes. While teachers have the advantage of being home with their kids every day after school, school holidays, and summer vacations and…
Read MoreTop 100 IL School Salaries will pull down $1 billion in pension payments.
Once again when we compare compensation of IL K-12 educators with other states we find an enormous gap. Just looking at IL vs. WI we see a $164,000 premium for IL top administrator salary…
Read MoreTop 100 Teacher Salaries for 2011: Phys. Ed Teacher Heads List with $203,154.
As Illinoiscitizens struggle with the severe economic downturn plaguing the state, Illinois public school employees enjoy another record year of salaries, fringe benefits and pensions. In 2011 an amazing 14,866 public school employees made…
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ERO: How Benefit Enhancements Drive Up Pension Costs.
In my last article (see here), I documented how more than 130 benefit increases for the TRS (Teachers Retirement System) have been passed by the legislature since the “Pension Guarantee” amendment to the constitution…
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