Illinois pensioners are millionaires. Their pensions are guaranteed by the state. And the citizens are not allowed to vote for change. The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that they get every dime including 3% increases for life. And their are more pensioners created every day. And this is not just the state. Its the schools and the city. And especially the politicians. You can go from one government to another and your pension both accumulates and you can have two pensions as well. Politicians can retire with very few years. If Illinois gets bailed out by the feds it will be like Indiana and Wisconsin paying for Illinois pensions. The biggest kicker is that pensioners DO NOT pay Illinois state taxes. Even if they make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. And a huge amount do.
Here’s a sterling example of why Illinois (and other states) are in such trouble; a longtime lobbyist was able to “count” 10 years in his job towards a teacher’s pension and spent one day in the classroom as substitute, qualifying for a $70K a year pension from the state. He took advantage of a piece of special legislation supported by then-governor Rod Blagojevich, creating the loophole that allowed him to collect a nice pension for one day of teaching. In return, the teacher’s union contributed $500K towards Blago’s re-election campaign.
The case was well-publicized and eventually wound up before the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld the union official’s “right” to collect a teacher’s pension for virtually no time in a classroom: