Retired CPS Teachers Getting Huge Pensions From Small Contributions

Click here to view Chicago Teacher’s Top 100 Pension Payouts To Date.
CHICAGO — A list released by Taxpayers United of America (TUA) of the Top 100 pensions of retired Chicago Public School teachers shows that many of these retired teachers have already collected huge amounts of cash compared with their relatively small employee contributions, according to the President of TUA.
“A small pension contribution of $126,000 mushroomed into millions of dollars for one retiree, and the payout is still growing at taxpayer expense,” said Jim Tobin, TUA President.
“In Chicago, property taxes pay for both public school salaries and generous pensions. The biggest portion of homeowners’ property tax bills is for public schools, and 80% of these property tax dollars goes for salaries and pensions.”
“Manford Byrd, who has contributed only $126,561 to his retirement plan, already has collected an estimated total pension payout of $2,580,793.”
“Robert Saddler, who has contributed only $108,335 to his retirement plan, already has collected an estimated total pension payout of $2,063,207.”
“The broken pension system must be reformed. Ending pensions for all new government hires will eventually eliminate unfunded government pensions; putting new government hires into social security and 401(k)s would achieve this.”
“One possible solution to this problem is to require each government employee in the Chicago teachers pension fund to contribute an additional 10% toward his or her pension. This would provide taxpayers billions of dollars in property tax relief.”
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Click here to view this news release as a PDF.