Republican candidate for Madison County sheriff Jeff Larner says he will not accept a state funded pension if elected come November.
“Let me be clear,” Larner stated in his announcement. “The hardworking men and women of the Sheriff’s Department and other police forces put their lives on the line for us every day. They unequivocally deserve their pensions.”
To get to the general election, Larner must first overcome a challenge from Madison County chief deputy sheriff Jeff Connor in the June 28 primary.
There are no Democratic candidates for sheriff running in the primary. The county Democratic organization could, however, slate a candidate to run in the general election.
Behind his reasoning for declining a pension, Larner stated that “too often the administration of these county offices use these jobs to supplement their pensions or even collect a second pension. That is wrong. I want the voters of this county to know my commitment is to running a professional, cost-effective office and one way to do that is to decline a pension.”
The state's pension crisis has been rated the worst in the nation, measured by pension debt relative to state gross domestic product, according to Larner's release, which is backed up by analyses from think tanks such as Illinois Policy Institute. Since 2014, Illinois owes $144.2 billion in net pension debt and that number is estimated to continue to rise due to state population decline and increasing cost for benefits.
Larner, a Granite City native and Marine Corps omcbat veteran, served as a Decatur police officer for over a decade. He then entered the private sector, eventually becoming the VP, Global Security and Corporate Services for Agribusiness giant ADM.
Larner's release states that his department was ranked numerous times as the best global security team by Security magazine.
“Both my son and my son-in-law serve their communities as police officers and my daughter is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified First Responder who specializes in law enforcement wellness,” added Larner. “My law enforcement roots run deep and I know I have the right mix of law enforcement and business experience needed to run an efficient Sheriff’s Office.”