It may save you a lot of trouble down the road if you start picking out sites for the refugee camps right now. Because Illinois is SCREWED.
A union lobbyist who worked just one day as a substitute teacher is entitled to a pension worth potentially tens of thousands of dollars annually, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in an opinion reinforcing its position that retirement benefits promised to public workers can’t be “diminished or impaired.”
David Piccioli was a lobbyist for the Illinois Federation of Teachers from 1997 to 2012. A 2007 law allowed officers of the IFT and the Illinois Education Association to receive teachers’ pensions for service in the union by qualifying for a teacher’s certificate, working in a classroom and paying past-owed employee contributions with interest.
Piccioli earned a certificate, worked as a substitute teacher in a Springfield elementary school for one day in January 2007, and paid $193,000 to TRS for contributions he owed for the previous 10 years, qualifying him for the pension
Justice Anne Burke, writing for the majority, said the fact that the General Assembly reversed the law in 2012 following reports by the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV is immaterial. The constitution bars action that would cause established pensions to be “diminished or impaired” and Piccioli followed the law as it stood.
Piccioli said Thursday he was uncertain how much the additional TRS pension would be. He already receives a $35,436 TRS pension for work after his certification. In 2017, when a Sangamon County circuit judge declared the prior-service pension unconstitutional, Piccioli estimated it was worth about $36,000 annually. He also receives a $33,780 annual pension for 10 years’ work on the Illinois House staff.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has proposed raising extra money for pensions by borrowing, selling state assets, and using additional revenue from a progressive tax system which would require a constitutional amendment. Even then, he wants to stretch the payoff date to 2052.
Fat man? You do realize that you're on your own here, right? Whenever Illinois finally goes belly-up, don't expect any of the rest of us to care. And whatever you do, don't expect federal help; none of the rest of us will ever agree to pony up to bail your lazy asses out and any non-Illinois politician who does should make sure that his or her resume is up-to-date.
This is all on you, Springfield. You made this bed; lie in it.
3 comments:
Well, if he complied with the law at the time, an ex post facto law to deny him the benefit isn't right, as the court ruled.
What's amazing is the size of these pensions for ten years' work.
Or one day's work in this case. But that's Democrat-run states for you.
One day's work, plus a $193,000 payment to the teacher's retirement fund. If he lives six years he will recover all that. What was nuts was allowing a union official to legally double-dip, getting a union pension and a teacher's pension. But Democrats tend to write crazy laws and then cry about the financial consequences.
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