Posted on 08/07/2017 6:49:30 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Illinoisans are struggling under the highest property taxes in the nation, a declining population and the nation’s worst income growth, but one group is still doing pretty well – government workers.
According to OpenTheBooks.com, Illinois has 63,000 public employees making more than $100,000, costing taxpayers $10 billion. These government workers range from auto pound supervisors to corrections nurses to junior college presidents and more. One of the most lucrative government fields is that of village and city managers, many of whom out-earn every U.S. governor.
The 10 highest-paid village and city managers in Illinois are located in Cook County and the collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. These local officials are all are making more than $200,000 per year.
The village of Glenview has the highest-paid village manager at $297,988.45 per year. Grayslake, Lake Forest, Libertyville, Northbrook, Rosemont, Palatine, Schaumburg and Northfield round out the top 10, with city and village managers in those locales all making between $230,000 and $265,000. Rosemont was on the list twice, with two village managers making more than $245,000.
This is on top of the comparatively high salaries many Illinois mayors take in. For example, Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens makes $260,000 per year, while San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee makes $289,000 annually and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has a salary of $238,000. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner makes $235,000 per year.
Rosemont taxpayers are on the hook for more than $750,000 for just three executive positions. In addition to Brad Stephens’ salary, the village of 4,200 has two village managers who both make six figures. Rosemont Village Manager Christopher Stephens – who is also Brad Stephens’ nephew – makes $249,231.46 per year, and Rosemont Village Manager Patrick Nagle makes $245,000.
Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar has an annual salary of roughly $150,000. Bolingbrook is partially located in DuPage County, where taxpayers are paying the second highest property taxes in Illinois and the 27th-highest in the country. Lake County – where village officials in Grayslake, Lake Forest and Libertyville are pulling in more than $200,000 per year – has residents faced with the highest property taxes in the state, and the 21st-highest in the nation.
Collar counties McHenry, Kane and Will rank fourth-, fifth- and sixth-highest in the state, respectively, and all are among the country’s top 35 counties for the highest median property taxes. Cook County residents are saddled with slightly lower property taxes, though still 67th-highest in the country.
These municipalities with high-priced executives also receive state aid through the Local Government Distributive Fund, or LGDF. Grayslake, for example, with a village manager making more than $264,000, received more than $2.1 million from state taxpayers in fiscal year 2016. Northbrook, with a more than $250,000 village manager, received more than $3.3 million. Schaumburg, with a village manager receiving nearly $240,000, received $7.5 million in LGDF funding.
The LGDF distributes money not based on need or any particular purpose, but simply based on each local government’s share of the statewide population. This sends state taxpayers’ money to locales that may not need it and also encourages local overspending – such as on high pay and benefits for local government employees.
Ending LGDF for populations over 5,000 could save the state $1.75 billion each year, and rein in spending that keeps local taxes so high. Additionally, local government and school district consolidation efforts could reduce costs and ease the burden on overtaxed residents in the Chicagoland area.
In the meantime, as Illinois taxpayers struggle with the one of the highest overall tax burdens in the country, and deal with personal income growth that lags behind neighboring states, government officials should take the initiative in exercising fiscal restraint and cutting the cost of government by reducing their own salaries. Taxpayers in Cook County, the collar counties and across the state of Illinois have been forced to bear the burden for too long.
Thats a lot of doe re mi.
And when they retire, within a few short years they’ll be making more than they did while working.
Dear God, give us government bankruptcy.
There is no slow or negotiated way out of the mess progressive government has created. their ideology is too rigid.
It will be rough for many, but bankruptcy and collapse is the only way this cancer will be stopped.
When I was growing p in the 50-60’s, it was understood that going into Government Service meant lower wages but good benefits. Now the Government Workers make great salaries and have fantastic benefits, all at the expense of the struggling worker bees. It’s is just not right. That is just one reason that our Middle Class is shrinking. And it is really difficult to fire any Government Workers, no matter how they perform their job nor what malfeasance they may engage in. The Leftist states are in a world of hurt......MR TRUMP, DO NOW BAIL ANY OF THEM OUT! And our Fed Government is so corrupt......I am at a loss for words. Where has my honest, successful country gone??
This is a potential way to oust the entrenched bureaucrats
Demand an accounting of the pay rate of all the people in your locality.
Rus this might be the way to get into office (which you AND Carl richly deserve)
I know one state gov-co agency that is hiring at least one inept fool back after firing that person.
All the problems facing that state, and Chicago, but they focus on making a holiday called obama day!!!
Illegal immigration costs Illinois $3.85 billion per year. This number is a low estimate in a particularly low year because of the budget crisis happening in Illinois currently. So let’s put that number in perspective.
Illinois is in a budget crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy. Their state debt is upwards of $64 billion. Their credit rating is a BBB-, which is one notch above a junk/non-investment rating. They are also projected to have their credit further downgraded.
Illinois also has unpaid bills upwards of $15 billion (with $800 million per year just in interest payments) and $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Hell Illinois can’t even fund its lotteries anymore.
Why? Because Illinois can’t pass a budget. This doesn’t mean they stop spending though. In fact, the spending target for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner is $37.3 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, and the House just agreed to cover $36.5 billion of that. No matter which way you slice it, or what spending bill passes, illegal immigration will eat roughly 10% of that spending.--SNIP--
<><>(1) using long-term financing to cover day-to-day expenses,
<><>(2) using bond proceeds to pay pension obligations, and,
<><> (3) misappropriating returns from the interest rate swap portfolio (a sub rosa ATM for paying the citys day to day expenses).
The stench from Chicago's poplitical sleaze is permeating the putrid city hall air... starting w/ Obama's ex-COS Chi/Mayor Rahm Emanuel. ....and remember, these kingpins of Chicago criminal politics moved into DC with Chicago kingpin Barack Obama.
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ANALYSIS Bonding is eternal taxation----the insider deals bonding companies made w/ shady pols to get bonding business would tell a tale of greedy pols accumulating riches through massive govt corruption.If these bonding deals were effectuated by way of referendum at the ballot box----and misled investors into buying tax-fee muni bonds----the SEC would be interested.
EMAIL enforcement@sec.gov
Massive govt corruption might include forgery, falsification of official records, fraudulent state budget entries, tax evasion, illegal wire-transfers, misuse of public office.
Tax-exempt municipal bond investors (including public education bond investors)-- have legal grounds to sue if they were deceived about deceptive bond offerings. In many cases, bond issues are approved by voters---at the ballot box--so that voters may have also been misled WRT uses of fraudulent bond offerings.
Also culpable are:
<><> bonding companies underwriting possible fraudulent bond issues;
<><> banks holding possibly fraudulent bond proceeds;
<><> State/city's modus operandi in allocating tax-exempt bond proceeds,
<><> the sub rosa acceptance of bond proceeds.
<><> state/city vendors accepting possible fraudulent bond proceeds.
<><> publicly-funded state/city agencies advocating the uses of fraudulent bond proceeds.
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The SEC, FBI, banking overight agencies, and the IRS, would be interested in the activities of state/city entities WRT bonding.
EMAIL---FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
EMAIL--enforcement@SEC.gov
Contact the IRS Fraud Unit
EMAIL Banking oversight agencies
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Taxpayers should find out which Chicago banks are facilitating this.
<><> Which banks are designated the official repositories of municipal tax dollars.
<><> Which banks are dispensing the ill-gotten proceeds....and to whom.
EVEN IN THE DC SWAMP Valerie Jarrett STILL Received
A $36K Annual Pension For a Part-Time Chicago Transit job
dailycaller.com ^ | 2/17/2016 | Chuck Ross / FR Posted by rktman
Chicago is known for its L-train. But it's the gravy train that White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett prefers to ride.
In addition to the $173,922 Jarrett earns per annum as President Obama's senior adviser, she is also paid an annual pension of $35,660 for the eight years she served as chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority, according to a Chicago Sun Times investigation.
Jarrett was appointed to chairman of the agency - a part-time position - in 1995 by then-mayor Richard Daley, whose brother, William Daley, served as Obama's chief of staff. Jarrett served as the former mayor's deputy chief of staff and was appointed to numerous other positions during his term. (Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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That one Chicago pension check is what she'll admit to. Wonder how many transportation bonds were issued while Jarrett was at Chicago Transit? Her pension payout would pale against her hidden income from lucrative insider Chicago bond deals.
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In his final days in office:
<><> Obama appointed Valerie Jarrett and National Security Adviser Susan Rice to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees
<><> Deputy Ntl Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was appointed to the tax-funded US Holocaust Memorial Council.
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The Obamaminions can't live by do-goodism alone (smirk). We demand to know how many US govt checks this motley crew of incompetents hangers-on is cashing. (including US govt payroll and pension checks.)
Its an old political trick to pad pensions, and, hand-pick people and put them on govt payrolls long after you think they're gone.
The trio's vouchers for reimbursement would also prove enlightening.
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Remember, Obama gave his MIL a 200,000 US govt pension for baby-sitting his kids. She must be on several payrolls, too.
The significance is that they have constitutional provisions which prohibit the reduction of public employee pension benefits. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled several years ago that reducing benefits was not allowed as an approach to solving their incredibly underfunded public pension program. This means the taxpayers will have to be squeezed harder, and that those with high incomes and discretion will leave the state, further concentrating the burden. You can be shocked by the idea of that many employees making that much at present, but understand that a) many are far from retirement and b) they play games with their last 3 years of compensation (getting paid accumulated sick leave in final year, etc.) to inflate the base from which their pension base is established.
This is a huge problem, for Illinois at the moment. Be on guard for efforts to federalize the burden of the recklessness of various states (IL, CA come to mind.) There will be an attempt to bail from the federal level, spreading the burden from the irresponsible to those states which have been responsible (neighboring WI has a public employee pension plan funded at something like 103%.)
Every time I fly into Ohare, I look at the incredible sprawl under me and say to myself, “That is one huge tax base to fleece.”
Every time.
And our Marines can’t fly their jets. Spit.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled several years ago that reducing benefits was not allowed as an approach to solving their incredibly underfunded public pension”
Yes, but the US supreme Court ruled that Healthcare for retirees is a “Gift” and not an entitlement, this was in a bankruptcy case for a City Government I believe, could of been Stockto, Ca.??
Either way, none of that matters if you can Prove FRAUD in the Contract, and since it is Mathematically Impossible to fulfill it must be Fraud and Fraud eviscerates Contracts.
We all learned in law school that fraud vitiates every contract. ( SeeAbry, 891 A.2d at 1061; see alsoDanann Realty Corp. v. Harris, 157 N.E.2d 597, 600-606 (N.Y. 1959) (Fuld, J., dissenting) (discussing cases vitiating reliance disclaimers under this common law rule in several states and the House of Lords in England).)
Declare them VOID!!
Think of how many also probably make between 70-100K also.
I hope they are saving money. Their pensions in 20 years will be zero. No way will States be able to keep paying pensions. The only agency that’s smart is the post office who required each employee have pensions paid for the amount of 75 years in the future. Most won’t take that much so the post office pension plan will remain solvent. The states are too dumb to do this.
Virginia has about 600.
Who is going to declare the Illinois constitution “Void”?
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