Four county officials and a state senator from Madison County combined earn close to $1 million annually in current salary and pension payments, all funded by taxpayers.
CHICAGO – A recent report reveals the legal practice of “official time,” under which government agencies pay staff on a full-time basis to work for a labor union rather than for taxpayers, comes with a hefty price tag.
While the state's stopgap budget adopted on the eve of a new fiscal year has for now satisfied the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), a taxpayer watchdog believes it's just a matter of time before more demands are made known.
The $147,477-plus former Governor James Thompson receives in annual state pension payments shines a light on a pension system that's essentially bankrupt, eroding the middle class, and creating classes of retired ¨have's¨ and ¨have-nots,¨ according to Taxpayers Union of America's latest study.
Two Edwardsville pensioners, whose combined annual pension is almost $476,000, made the top 400 in Tax Payers United of America's 10th Annual Report of Illinois State Pensions.
Some state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem open to at least a few of the reform ideas recently proposed by an Illinois think tank to help reduce higher education costs and make colleges and universities more affordable to students in the state.
Former Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville chancellor David Werner is among the highest paid beneficiaries of a state pension system that has $22.4 billion in unfunded liability.