More than a dozen city and park district retirees in Highland Park have received more than $1 million in pension benefits each.
The average lifetime pension benefit among the county’s 20 highest-earning municipal retirees is more than $1.2 million, while their average total retirement contribution is less than $75,000.
Among the 23 former city of Springfield employees who retired at age 50, five have accumulated more than $1 million in pension benefits.
Previous pension obligation bonds in Illinois have increased costs to taxpayers and done nothing to solve the fiscal challenges created by the pension system.
Senate Bill 3622 would reverse recently passed restrictions on pension spiking, raising the cap on end-of-career salary increases to 6 percent from 3 percent.
Active Des Plaines Park District pensioners – including two pension millionaires – have put taxpayers on the hook for more than $7.6 million in pension payouts since 1996.
Lake County residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation – a burden driven by the growth in pension costs over the last 20 years.
Despite serving one of the most overtaxed parts of the state, a retired Kane County-area water district employee has collected millions in pension payouts over the past 20 years.
An agreement to end a dispute between the city of Harvey and two public safety pension funds provides a glimpse at the impending fiscal crises stemming from government pensions across the state.
Any meaningful property tax relief for Illinoisans means reforming Illinois’ unsustainable public pension system.
Seven former local officials across Rock Island County are taking home pensions in excess of $100,000 a year. And nearly a dozen have already collected $1 million over the course of their retirements.
Avenues for state oversight for cities with financial difficulties have limited utility in the face of massive pension debt and have almost never been invoked since Springfield passed them into law in 1990.
In the midst of Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis, former city officials are seeing big payouts.
Severely underwater public safety pensions have already derailed the finances of other municipalities, such as Harvey and North Chicago.