PRITZKER SOVIET-STYLE LOCKDOWN PUT ILLINOISANS AT GREAT MEDICAL RISK

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Yesterday, Illinois Governor Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker announced from the economic rubble of his once prosperous state, that he would move forward with “phase 4” of his soviet style lockdown.

“Not only is Pritzker delaying the economic recovery of the state, but his actions have put Illinoisans at risk and may be causing many deaths of his constituents,” said James L. Tobin, economist and president of Taxpayers United of Illinois (TUA).

According to Scott W. Atlas M.D., a physician and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, lockdown policies have created the greatest global economic disruption in history, with trillions of dollars of lost economic output. “The cure is bigger than the disease at this point,” said Atlas. “150,000 new patients with cancer are diagnosed every single month in the United States. Most of them are not getting diagnosed.”

Stanford epidemiologist John P.A. Ioannidis states, “We lack reliable evidence on how many people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 or who continue to become infected. Better information is needed to guide decisions and actions of monumental significance and to monitor their impact.”

“Three months after the outbreak emerged, most countries, including the U.S., lack the ability to test a large number of people and no countries have reliable data on the prevalence of the virus in a representative random sample of the general population,” wrote Ioannidis.

“In the absence of data, prepare-for-the-worst reasoning leads to extreme measures of social distancing and lockdowns. Unfortunately, we do not know if these measures work. School closures, for example, may reduce transmission rates. But they may also backfire if children socialize anyhow, if school closure leads children to spend more time with susceptible elderly family members, if children at home disrupt their parents’ ability to work, and more. School closures may also diminish the chances of developing herd immunity in an age group that is spared serious disease.”

Ioannidis warns, “One of the bottom lines is that we don’t know how long social distancing measures and lockdowns can be maintained without major consequences to the economy, society, and mental health. Unpredictable evolutions may ensue, including financial crisis, unrest, civil strife, war, and a meltdown of the social fabric. At a minimum, we need unbiased prevalence and incidence data for the evolving infectious load to guide decision-making.”

John P.A. Ioannidis is professor of medicine and professor of epidemiology and population health, as well as professor by courtesy of biomedical data science at Stanford University School of Medicine, professor by courtesy of statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) at Stanford University.

Rock Island Taxpayers: Enough Already!

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Rock Island, IL – Taxpayers in Rock Island County have had enough of greedy politicians’ lust for other people’s money.

“After the county board approved an 8.9% property tax increase for 2020, taxpayers resoundingly rejected an additional 1% sales tax increase. They let the money-grubbing bureaucrats know they’ve had enough,” said Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).

“It’s no secret that all of the increase in taxes is used to prop up a failed government pension system. And as local governments raise property taxes to fund the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), Democrat Governor Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker seeks to raise the state’s income tax to fund the other five failed pension funds.”

“Pritzker’s income-tax theft amendment will be on the November 3, 2020 ballot. If passed, this taxpayer robbery will hit the middle-class the hardest. And after the huge loss of jobs and income from the Covid-19 pandemic, Illinois’ middle-class will virtually disappear.”

“If ever there was a time to tell Pritzker and the rest of the blood-sucking politicians that we’ve had enough, it’s now!”

“As many of you have been struggling without a paycheck, or watching your business disintegrate, here’s what a few of the political elite in Rock Island County collected without a concern about you:

Marshall E. Douglas retired from Rock Island County government and his annual pension is a comfortable $158,956. His estimated lifetime payout is $2,866,238, but his own investment in that lucrative payout was only about 5.6%

Calvin D. Lee retired from Moline USD 40 and collects $229,335 in annual pension payments. His estimated lifetime payout is a stunning $7,328,284! He was able to retire at the age of 58 and only contributed about 5% of his own money into the Teachers Retirement System (TRS).

Bettie Truitt, Blackhawk College retiree, collects $137,575 a year from the State University Retirement System (SURS). Having retired at the age of 52, she will realize about $7,117,914 in lifetime pension payments.”

Click here to view top Rock Island IMRF pensions

Click here to view top Rock Island TRS pensions

Click here to view top Rock Island SURS pensions

“These government employees only work 20.1 years on average in order to collect these sky-high pensions. And for every dollar they deposit in their own pension fund, taxpayers are forced to fork over $4.74. Add to that a 3% cost of living adjustment and it doesn’t take a genius to understand why Illinois’ government pensions are insolvent.”

“Rather than put an income-tax theft amendment on the ballot, Pritzker should have pushed for a pension reform amendment because these outrageous pensions are protected by the state constitution. Enough is enough,” said Tobin.

148,654 Illinois Government Pension Millionaires!

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Pension Overview for 2020

Government pensions affect every taxpayer in Illinois. Now Pritzker’s pension madness threatens to reach across the state and ravage taxpayers with the most insidious effect of Covid-19: theft of taxpayer wealth. As businesses and workers across the country struggle to keep afloat during this pandemic, Pritzker promises to increase your taxes.

How does Pritzker expect to fund the untouchable government pensions if no commerce is allowed? He expects the entire country to bail out the bankrupt state of Illinois. However, he is playing a very dangerous game of chicken and the livelihood of every Illinoisan is at risk. Everyone except the government employees and retirees whose pensions are protected by the Illinois Constitution, that is.

And there are billions at stake. It doesn’t take a lot of pension millionaires to bankrupt the system. Not when there are more than 148,654 Illinois government pensioners who will receive more than a million dollars in pension payments. That only represents the six statewide pension funds. There are tens of thousands more government pension millionaires in the Chicago pension funds and the hundreds of local police and fire pension funds. That number will continually increase with the constitutionally protected 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA). For the six state-wide government-employee pension plans, the COLA is compounded, making new pension millionaires every day.

The average pensioner gets $1.5 million in lifetime pension payments, and for every $1 they deposit to their own pensions, taxpayers are forced to pay $4.74. Government employees don’t have to work very long to qualify for that $1.5 million; the average number of years employed is only 20.1 and the average age of retirement is about 61.

In thousands of cases from the State Employees Retirement System, (SERS) and the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), pensioners also receive Social Security pensions.

There is currently an estimated $143.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities across all six statewide Illinois government pension funds. Some of the funds like IMRF like to brag that they are in good shape. However, IMRF is only 90% funded because of the massive property tax burdens of taxpayers that subsidize it. Other funds, like the General Assembly Retirement System is barely solvent at 15.65% funded. It is for this reason that Pritzker is so determined to raise Illinoisans’ income tax with his “Nov. 3rd” Income Theft Amendment

If Pritzker continues this path, suffering taxpayers will find their incomes diverted to pension millionaires like Leslie Heffez. Currently, Heffez receives $635,123 a year from taxpayers, which he will receive regardless of the lockdown. Taxpayers cannot afford the lockdown or these pensions. The sooner Pritzker realizes this, the sooner Illinois can begin to truly recover.

All Illinois Government Pensions Over $100,00

Top 200 GARS Pensions

Top 200 TRS Pensions

Top 200 JRS Pensions

Top 200 SERS Pensions

Top 200 SURS Pensions

Top 200 IMRF Pensions