The need to reverse outrageous public pensions
Rauner budget hits the nail on the head when it comes to cracking down on public taxpayer funded pension abuse but it doesn’t go far enough. No one should be paid more than $100,000 for a public pension that is paid for by the taxpayers. It’s just wrong.
By Ray Hanania
Governor Bruce Rauner unveiled a budget that seems to anger everyone, which means he’s doing the right thing because there is no way to cut $2 billion from the state’s bloated spending without making drastic cuts and forcing agencies to find ways to live within reasonable budgets the public can afford to pay.
The most egregious area of wasteful public spending is the outrageous and totally unjustified pensions that governments have bestowed to employees in in public education, healthcare and government.
I don’t care that the highest paid public pensioner is Tapas Das Gupta is a brilliant doctor. He doesn’t deserve a $450,000 a year pension paid for by taxpayers.
Gupta is just the tip of an iceberg of fiscal irresponsibility driven by greed, favoritism and clout. How else do you explain these outrageous public taxpayer paid totals?
More than 10,000 people today earn more than $100,000 a year in public pensions. Most are employed by our schools but many worked for public hospitals and governments.
Defenders argue pension recipients paid into their pensions during the sometimes brief time they worked at their jobs. But that is a distortion. Gupta will receive more than $10 million during the life of his pension. Did he even contribute even half of that? No, not according to public records, Gupta paid 9 percent of what he is expected to receive in payouts. In fact, most recipients will have “contributed” (from government wages) an average of under 8 percent of what they will reap!
Anyone who earns more than $300,000 doesn’t deserve a public pension. They should invest their own money in their own 401 K. But that’s exactly the reason why these folks didn’t do that because that can be risky. Under the state system, the taxpayers are required to keep paying at the outrageously high rate no matter what happens in the economy.
Governor Rauner suggests the pension system be changed moving forward, meaning people like Gupta and the hundreds of others who are being paid pensions greater than $100,000 a year don’t have to worry.
But that’s wrong. Pension reform should be retroactive. There is no way anyone should be paid more than $100,000 a year in a pension from a government job, regardless of what you did and what you were paid, or more than double what they paid into the system.
Anyone who receives a public pension greater than $100,000 should be banned from working in another public job. If they work in private business, they shouldn’t be allowed to collect their pension.
Public service pensions should not be a get-rich scheme to guarantee a luxury after-life.
Rauner should crack down. He already knows people will be angry with him, but who cares? Does her worry about the 10,000 pensioners or the 13 million residents of Illinois? Do what’s right!
Public pensions should be capped at $100,000. And, no one should collect a pension until they reach the age of 70.
That should apply to those who now collect outrageous and unjustified pensions. If they don’t like it, let government give them a “buy out” and return the sums they invested.
Finally, we need real time data published and available to the public on ALL pensions so the public can see the truth about how some of our public officials have profited off of the taxpayers’ backs. That’s not the case.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected].)
NOTE: Here’s the 2013 pension list:
Blogger, Columnist at Illinois News Network Online
Ray Hanania is senior blogger for the Illinois News Network news site. He is an award winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist who covered the beat from 1976 through 1992 (From Mayor Daley to Mayor Daley). And, Hanania is a stubborn and loud critic of the biased mainstream American news media.
Hanania Chicago political beats and Chicago City Hall at the Daily Southtown Newspapers (1976-1985) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1985-1992). He published the The Villager Community Newspapers covering 12 Southwest suburban regions (1993-1997). Hanania also hosted live political news radio talkshows on WLS AM (1980 - 1991), and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM, WSBC AM in Chicago, and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star of Lebanon, the News of the World in London, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, The Saudi Gazette, the Arab News in Jeddah, and Aramco Magazine.
Hanania's Chicagoland columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald, the Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
He is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at:
[email protected].
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
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The need to reverse outrageous public pensions
Rauner budget hits the nail on the head when it comes to cracking down on public taxpayer funded pension abuse but it doesn’t go far enough. No one should be paid more than $100,000 for a public pension that is paid for by the taxpayers. It’s just wrong.
By Ray Hanania
Governor Bruce Rauner unveiled a budget that seems to anger everyone, which means he’s doing the right thing because there is no way to cut $2 billion from the state’s bloated spending without making drastic cuts and forcing agencies to find ways to live within reasonable budgets the public can afford to pay.
The most egregious area of wasteful public spending is the outrageous and totally unjustified pensions that governments have bestowed to employees in in public education, healthcare and government.
I don’t care that the highest paid public pensioner is Tapas Das Gupta is a brilliant doctor. He doesn’t deserve a $450,000 a year pension paid for by taxpayers.
Gupta is just the tip of an iceberg of fiscal irresponsibility driven by greed, favoritism and clout. How else do you explain these outrageous public taxpayer paid totals?
More than 10,000 people today earn more than $100,000 a year in public pensions. Most are employed by our schools but many worked for public hospitals and governments.
Photo by Steven Vance
Defenders argue pension recipients paid into their pensions during the sometimes brief time they worked at their jobs. But that is a distortion. Gupta will receive more than $10 million during the life of his pension. Did he even contribute even half of that? No, not according to public records, Gupta paid 9 percent of what he is expected to receive in payouts. In fact, most recipients will have “contributed” (from government wages) an average of under 8 percent of what they will reap!
Anyone who earns more than $300,000 doesn’t deserve a public pension. They should invest their own money in their own 401 K. But that’s exactly the reason why these folks didn’t do that because that can be risky. Under the state system, the taxpayers are required to keep paying at the outrageously high rate no matter what happens in the economy.
Governor Rauner suggests the pension system be changed moving forward, meaning people like Gupta and the hundreds of others who are being paid pensions greater than $100,000 a year don’t have to worry.
But that’s wrong. Pension reform should be retroactive. There is no way anyone should be paid more than $100,000 a year in a pension from a government job, regardless of what you did and what you were paid, or more than double what they paid into the system.
Anyone who receives a public pension greater than $100,000 should be banned from working in another public job. If they work in private business, they shouldn’t be allowed to collect their pension.
Public service pensions should not be a get-rich scheme to guarantee a luxury after-life.
Rauner should crack down. He already knows people will be angry with him, but who cares? Does her worry about the 10,000 pensioners or the 13 million residents of Illinois? Do what’s right!
Public pensions should be capped at $100,000. And, no one should collect a pension until they reach the age of 70.
That should apply to those who now collect outrageous and unjustified pensions. If they don’t like it, let government give them a “buy out” and return the sums they invested.
Finally, we need real time data published and available to the public on ALL pensions so the public can see the truth about how some of our public officials have profited off of the taxpayers’ backs. That’s not the case.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected].)
NOTE: Here’s the 2013 pension list:
Ray Hanania
Hanania Chicago political beats and Chicago City Hall at the Daily Southtown Newspapers (1976-1985) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1985-1992). He published the The Villager Community Newspapers covering 12 Southwest suburban regions (1993-1997). Hanania also hosted live political news radio talkshows on WLS AM (1980 - 1991), and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM, WSBC AM in Chicago, and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star of Lebanon, the News of the World in London, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, The Saudi Gazette, the Arab News in Jeddah, and Aramco Magazine.
Hanania's Chicagoland columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald, the Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
He is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at: [email protected].
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
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