Politicians shocked by pension abuse. But not the abuse you’re thinking of.
GOP House leader and pension killer Tom Cross.
Governor Quinn, GOP House Leader Tom Cross and Rahm Emanuel all expressed shock at the abuse of the state employee pension system.
“Taxpayer money must be protected, which is why I supported lawmakers’ move to address egregious abuses of the pension system. … I look forward to reviewing and taking action quickly when the bill reaches my desk.”
Quinn is not talking about the abuse that you’re probably thinking of.
You’re probably thinking about the failure of the state legislature to pay their promised share of public service worker pensions for the past four decades. The failure to keep their promise has meant that the state owes teachers and other public employees hundreds of millions, maybe more than a billion, dollars. Nobody can come up with the same amount. But it’s a big number.
For four decades the state has used public pensions as their piggy bank. They have taken money out when they were trying to avoid increasing taxes on the 1% and corporations.
They don’t mean abuse like the twenty year pass on taxes that the state gave Sears.
That kind of corporate favoritism and abuse is not what offends Quinn, Cross and Emanuel.
They are outraged by the story that two union officials qualified for a state pension by following the rules. Rather than figuring out a way to pay what they owe, the legislature passed legislation that goes after two guys who qualified for pensions by substitute teaching and then working as teacher union employees.
Two guys. A billion dollars owed to our pension system. An odd sense proportionality when it comes to abuse.
I have to go along with the State on this one. Two con-men spent ONE DAY
As subs and are getting pensions twice as large as mine after 41 years
To hell with them. If they followed the rules that was a rotten rule.
Anonymous, I think you’re missing the point. It’s not what they did that was okay (of course, not, it’s robbery!). But the fact that they did nothing illegal – 2 guys, mind you – but when the state breaks the law and doesn’t pay into the pension fund for decades… no response from them.
It’s not the actions of the lobbyists. It’s the sense of perspective with our politicians.
The problem is that what these AFT scumbags did not only stole from the people they are supposed to represent, it made all of us look bad. Rags like the Trib shouted this story to the hills as an example of the abuses of the system that inevitably take place.
These two guys put a name and a face to pension abuse. We can complain all we want about the state not doing their part, but when specific individuals take advantage of the system like this it makes great fodder for the teacher haters.
It is a huge mistake to discount the problems these two guys caused for us. We should be pointing out the abuses and the theft and calling these people out on it, not making excuses for them.
Nobody’s making excuse for them. I think everyone’s in agreement that these guys are scumbags. And you’re right on – they put a face to pension abuse and made a really easy target for teacher haters.
Actually, I’m not in agreement that they or others who serve teachers through their service in the union and then qualified for TRS benefits as a result should be described as “scumbags.” I believe that those who serve in the state legislature and who do grovel at the feet of the 1% are scumbags. I think those in the legislature who vote to take money out of the budget that was intended to meet state pension obligations and spend it elsewhere are scumbags. But what makes these guys, and others who taught for years, then worked in the IEA and the IFT and had their earnings count for TRS, as the rules permitted, scumbags because of it?
Imagine what the unfunded liabilities of the five state pension systems would have been had the state legislators paid the required $29 billion that it owes the pension systems throughout the past years ($15 billion to TRS). Now imagine what the possible investment revenue would have been in addition to that $29 billion paid to these pension systems…
Dear Fred
I spent 41 years as a teacher and Librarian on the South Side.
You have spent over 30 years as a teacher .Doesn’t it get you mad
That people who have put in 8 hours as a sub receive a larger
pension than either of us?
What burns me up is the fact these pensions are based on what
They were paid as union employees, not what they would have been
paid as educators. If they had ever been real teachers and were paid
A pension based on what they would have earned in a school that
would be one thing. Even if they were given credit for a union
Leave it would be fine. But what they did was an insult to every educator
in the state. The part time job of lobbyist should rate more than
classroom duty.
I have only so much anger to go around. I’ll save it for those who stole billions from our pension fund. See what they’ve done? They have us arguing about the small stuff rather than the big.