The President of Taxpayers United of American (TUA) today compared Gov. Patrick Quinn (D) to the Captain of the Titanic, saying that Quinn makes the Titanic Captain look highly-skilled by comparison.

“In his state of the State speech today, Governor Quinn quoted Abraham Lincoln. Well, Lincoln also said ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.’ Quinn thinks he is being clever, but he is fooling no one,” said Jim Tobin, TUA President.

“Governor Quinn is presiding over a sinking-ship called Illinois that has raised its state corporate income tax, hurting and driving away businesses, and its state personal income tax a back-breaking 67%. Nevertheless, due to its runaway spending, Illinois had its Moody’s rating downgraded to the lowest rating in the nation. Now he is planning to invest – with money Illinois does not have – in the Illinois Jobs Agenda for 2012, in college scholarships, in early childhood education, in 21^st century schools, in affordable housing for Illinois residents, and in clean water.”

“As of June 30, 2011, the five retirement systems in the State of Illinois had total unfunded liabilities of 83.1 Billion. I have suggested that ending pensions for all new government employees and putting them into social security and 401 (k)s is a needed reform that will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions completely.”

“In addition, if each current government employee in an Illinois State pension fund were required to contribute an additional 10% toward their pension, taxpayers would save in excess of $150 billion over the next thirty-five years.  Requiring government employees and retirees to pay for one half of their healthcare premiums would save even more – an estimated $230 billion over current projections.”

“If Governor Quinn truly wants Illinois to move forward, it is reforms such as these that will have to be implemented in Illinois expects to have the money it will need pay its bills and offer tax relief. But so far, he is steering the state directly toward a huge iceberg.”

“Candidates must return our questionnaire and our signed and dated Taxpayer Protection Pledge in order for us to consider endorsing them,” said Jim Tobin, TAC Chairman. “Not all candidates who return our questionnaire and pledge end up being endorsed by us. It is not permissible for a candidate to state or imply he or she has been endorsed by TUA if we have not issued a formal endorsement.”

Tobin referred to the January 24 Naperville edition of the Chicago Tribune that ran a story written by 42nd Dist. State Representative candidate Laura Pollastrini, featuring a picture of her signing the committee’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge

“On the basis of her answers to our questionnaire, we would not endorse Ms. Pollastrini,” said Tobin, “so the picture and article are misleading.”

“Ms. Pollastrini stated she would support tax increases on tobacco and liquor. Therefore, her responses render our Taxpayer Protection Pledge meaningless, because it states that ‘…I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.’ Candidates cannot pick and choose which tax increases they will support and expect to be endorsed by us.”

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“Iowa’s government pension system desperately needs reform.  Releasing the specific names and pension amounts would show who’s really benefitting,” said Tobin. “But Iowa refuses to release actual individual pension payments. Why won’t the Governor let Iowans see the facts?”

“There is no fair representation of taxpayers. This is a Nationwide problem that burdens the Left and Right alike, and has fueled the financial crisis facing taxpayers and retirees. The urgency of this crisis is illustrated by the extensive press coverage that our government pension reports have received throughout Iowa.”

Tobin, who toured through Iowa towns revealing top government pension estimates to the public, was covered by KGAN TV CBS 2, CBS 4 Quad Cities, The Daily Iowan, The Gazette, Eastern Iowa Government, The Republic (AP), and WHO Newsradio 1040.

TUA will be exploring all options to get the information still being withheld by the government bureaucrats of Iowa, released. “I have written letters to Governor Branstad and the members of the Iowa General Assembly, asking for transparency.  As long as taxpayers foot the bill for these pensions, those payments should be available for public review.”  Tobin plans to work with legislators but does not exclude the possibility of filing a lawsuit to obtain the information.

Click Here to View All Iowa Pensions

TUA will be revealing more States’ pensions across the nation, including those of Ohio, Kansas, and Arizona in the coming weeks.

January 24, 2012. Chicago. The taxpayer watchdog group Taxpayers United of America filed suit yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court against the Riverside-Brookfield, Illinois school board. The lawsuit claims that Riverside-Brookfield administrators used money from taxpayer coffers to fund a PR campaign in favor of a tax increase that would benefit their school district. Government entities and officials are bared from using taxpayer money to promote political campaigns, including referendums.

According to Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United of America, “In more than thirty years of anti-tax activism in Illinois, I can say without equivocation that this has been, by far, the most shameless, open and notorious use of public resources in support of a political outcome that I have ever seen.” The political effort Tobin refers to is the April 5, 2011 ballot initiative to raise property taxes in Riverside-Brookfield to fund the school board. The campaign by administrators included television commercials and physical mailings, all paid for with taxpayer money.

In accusing the Riverside-Brookfield School District 208 of illegal electioneering, Taxpayers United is asking the court to make a declaratory judgment and impose injunctive relief and civil rights damages.

This isn’t the first legal challenge made against this very same 2011 ballot initiative in Riverside-Brookfield. In April 2011, members of the Cook County Board filed an initial suit to stop the property tax increase ballot measure. In the suit, the commissioners argued that the dollar amount used on the ballot for voter approval wasn’t the actual amount that taxes would rise. In fact, voters were being shown a tax increase much lower than the actual increase they were being asked to vote on. In addition to Riverside-Brookfield, 8 other municipalities were sued for the same tactic. Officials didn’t dispute that accusation. Instead, school board authorities argued that they didn’t need to use the actual amount.

Since the school board was well aware that they were using fraudulent tax increase numbers, the suit named each board member individually as respondents. “The taxpayers in Riverside-Brookfield should not be forced to pay for the defense of these board members who knew what they were doing was wrong but went ahead and did it anyway,” TUA Vice President Christina Tobin said at the time. In response to the deceptive tactic of using phony tax increase numbers to mask much larger increases when asking voters to approve them on ballot initiatives, the Illinois House voted 110-0 to ban the deceptive practice.

TUA decided to act after both the Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Anita Alvarez failed to take any action. For more information on Taxpayers United of America, visit their website at www.taxpayersunitedofamerica.org.

BY ASMAA ELKEURTI | JANUARY 23, 2012 7:20 AM

The advocacy group Taxpayers United of America is calling for pension reform across Iowa.

Officials from the anti-tax group said million-dollar pension payout plans need to be seriously evaluated by state legislators and reformed, a concern some Iowa City city officials share. Officials with the advocacy group visited cities throughout Iowa last week to push for pension reform.

But Iowa City City Councilor Connie Champion said she doesn’t see change happening soon.

“It definitely needs to be looked at, but I don’t see when that’s going to happen,” she said. “I really don’t.”

Iowa City will spend $2.2 million on city employee pensions in fiscal 2012, a 57 percent increase over the $1.4 million paid in 2010. Iowa City Finance Director Kevin O’Malley has previously told The Daily Iowan that number is only expected to rise.

According to Taxpayers United of America, Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine will receive the highest pension payout, with more than $3.7 million for public safety employee pensions, which are different than general public employee pensions.

Recently retired Iowa City Assistant City Manager Dale Helling will receive almost $3 million in pension payouts.

Christina Tobin, the vice president of Taxpayers United of America said she feels in order to save the system, changes must be made.

“We are proposing reform for pensions nationwide,” she said. “We feel that if there isn’t reform, the system will collapse, and there will be no pensions.”

But the issue isn’t getting the right kind of attention, Champion said.

“The only people I know who are interested are those who are paying the bills,” she said.

Individual cities are billed if the state cannot fund pensions, ultimately shifting the costs onto taxpayers.

Champion said she feels legislators aren’t taking the issue into full consideration due to conflicts of interest.

“These pension funds were set up at a time when public employees did not have very good pension plans,” she said. “… It’s going to be very difficult to change. Part of the problem is our legislators are part of the same pension plan, so it’s hard to get them to do anything about that.”

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, said he feels the current pension system is fine the way it is.

“The current system works, but we’ll have to keep an eye on it to ensure the current system remains solid,” he said.

Iowa City Fire Chief Andrew Rocca previously told the DI reducing pensions for public-safety employees may affect the quality of applicants at the entry level.

“From my perspective, the pension is probably a very powerful recruiting tool,” he said. “People who look into a public-safety career look at the package. If it were to erode too much, it may affect the quality of the candidates we see at the entry level.”

Champion said these pension plans should be comparable with private sector retirement benefits.

“I don’t want to take pension plans away for people,” she said. “I just want to see it be more competitive with the private sector. 401K would be great with that. This is not just the problem in Iowa City or Iowa. Nobody has the perfect solution. Nobody even knows what the perfect solution is, but it will be talked about for a long time.”

Rather than changing pensions, Jacoby suggested reforming private sector wage discrepancies.

“I’m afraid right now you’re seeing enormous profits on one hand and suppressed living salaries on the other,” he said. “Instead of complaining about the public sector, we need to make sure the private sector is climbing up, not try to make the public sector climb down.”

Tobin said Taxpayers United of America eventually hopes to work for pension change on a federal level.

• Davenport IA City Government Employees Top 25 Estimated Pensions
• Scott County IA Government Employees Top 25 Est. Pensions

“One really has to question why Iowa lawmakers keep individual pension information in a shroud of secrecy. Prohibiting public review of this information sends a message to taxpayers that lawmakers are more concerned with protecting abusers and double-dippers than imposing adequate reforms on a system that holds taxpayers hostage,” said Christina Tobin, TUA Vice President.

“Davenport and Scott County taxpayers struggle through this recession with average wages of $36,000 while government employees really rake it in for as many as 30 years of retirement.”

“Davenport’s City Administrator, Craig Malin had annual gross wages of $221,526 and looks forward to an estimated annual pension starting at $143,992 with an estimated lifetime payout of $4,031,768.”*

“The Chief Information Officer of Davenport, Robert Henry had annual gross wages of $147,687 and will enjoy a starting annual pension estimated at $95,997 and a lifetime estimated payout of $3,551,872.”*

“Scott County government employee, Diana F. Bruemmer grosses $165,488 annually which will afford her an estimated annual pension of $107,567, accumulating an estimated $3,011,882 over a normal lifetime.”*

“Michael James Walton of Scott County government had gross annual earnings of $129,900 with an estimated lifetime pension payout of $2,364,180 from his annual estimated pension of $84,435.”*

“Iowa government pension systems are making millionaires out of public employees at taxpayer expense. Although some reforms have been made to the Iowa government employee pension systems, additional reform is critical. Ending pensions for all new government hires and replacing with social security and 401(k)s would eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions. If current government employees increase contributions toward his or her pension, taxpayers would save billions of dollars. We need to knock all politicians out of office who make deals with bad government union bosses and bad corporate power brokers at the expense of the taxpayers.”

*For Police and Fire employees 30 years with retirement at age 55; for others 35 years retirement at age 62; assumes dividend (COLA) averages 1.5% per year; assumes current salary is same as retirement salary; Est. Total Pension Payout 30 years at age 55, 24 years at age 62. 6. Est. Total Pension Payout does not include Soc. Sec. payments if any; P&F pay 8.94%, others 4.5% plus 6.2% Soc. Sec., P&F max. 82% after 30 years, others 65% after 35 years; SS wages were covered up to the federal limit of $245,000 for calendar years 2010 and 2011 or max. pension of about $159,000.

Click to view the release as PDF.

(KGAN) CEDAR RAPIDS—How much money are government and city workers making during retirement?

Too much, says Taxpayers United of America.

“We don’t want to villify the people who are receiving salaries and pensions from taxpayers,” said Rae Ann McNeilly of Taxpayers United of America. “It’s to villify the system.”

A system which pays government and public city workers multi-million pensions paid by taxpayers, according to the group.

The group wants drastic pension reform. Instead of pensions for retired city council members, make them pay into a 401 K account, suggests the group. And make that financial information public.

“The question begs what are we hiding if we won’t give individual pension amounts- pension payouts,” asked McNeilly.

The state, however, says city and state retirement funds are available to the public online.

Officials from the Iowa Public Employee’s Retirement System say of the 100,000 retired workes getting a pension, the monthly income for each is about $1,200. Money partially funded by the workers themselves.

“The employee contributes to the fund, the employer contributes to the plan, and over the career, the contributions are pooled and invested,” said Donna Mueller, CEO of I-PRES.

“The trust fund with the contributions and investments pays out pensions to the members who draw pensions from I-PRES,” Mueller said.

Thursday, January 19 2012, 12:48 AM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS — Representatives of a national group stopped here Wednesday to say it’s time for public employees in Iowa to be moved from a pension system to a less costly 401(k) retirement program like those used in the private sector.

January 18, 2012, 2:17 pm

By Rick Smith/SourceMedia Group News

CEDAR RAPIDS — A national “taxpayers” group stopped here Wednesday to say it’s time for the state of Iowa and Iowa’s local governments and schools to move public employees from a public pension system to a less-costly, private-sector-like 401(k) retirement program.

To make its point, Taxpayers United of America, Chicago, Ill., estimated that the lifetime public pension payouts will reach near or exceed $2 million each for the top 50 highest-paid Cedar Rapids and Iowa City city employees.

Some of the payout is based on money paid into the system by the public employees.

Rae Ann McNeilly, outreach director for the group, said the group’s hope is that an average Iowan might respond, “I’m paying out $2 million in pension benefits on my $45,000 salary,” she said.

McNeilly said such “defined-benefit” public pension systems pay such extravagant benefits that the programs are “breaking the bank” or will. Many private-sector employers — if they offer any pension benefits at all — have moved to a “defined-contribution”system such as a 401 (k) where employers’ typically pay less and the system doesn’t guarantee an annual payout.

McNeilly pointed to the state of Rhode Island as one state that has worked to modify its state pension system, which Rhode Island has done by raising retirement ages and incorporating a 401(k)-like feature into the system.

McNeilly and Christina Tobin, the taxpayers group’s vice president, said elected officials and top government employees perpetuate public pension systems without question because they benefit from them. The key is to elect different people, the two said.

Tobin’s father, James Tobin, founded the taxpayers group 35 years ago. He ran for governor of Illinois in 1998 as a Libertarian Party candidate.

Iowa’s public employees pay into the state’s public retirement systems as do taxpayers in the jurisdictions where the employees work.

On July 1, most state and local employees in the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System or IPERS will be paying 5.78 percent of their income into IPERS and taxpayers will be paying an amount equal to 8.67 percent of the employees’ salaries into the system, according to IPERS.

On July 1, public safety employees in the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa will be paying 9.4 percent of their salaries into the system while taxpayers in the jurisdiction will be paying an amount equal to 26.12 percent of the employees’ salaries, according to the program.

Taxpayers United of America noted that lifetime pension payouts will exceed more than $3 million for top police and fire officials in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City because those officials can retire earlier and so are likely to draw payments over more years. The assumptions built into the group’s estimates are that most public employees will draw benefits for 24 years after age 62 while police and fire officials will draw them for 30 years after age 55.

The group estimates that Dale Helling, who recently retired as assistant city manager in Iowa City, will receive about $3 million via his pension payout.

It turns out that Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz, unlike other Cedar Rapids city employees, is something of an example of what Taxpayers United of America wants to see. Pomeranz does not participate in the IPERS system and instead receives deferred compensation that he puts into a 401(k) account.