Illinois Press

TUA’s release on Bill Zettler’s book, Illinois Pension Scam, was featured in the following article at examiner.com.
June 15, 2012. Springfield. While many states across the nation are having difficulty paying for government employee pensions, Illinois is widely considered to be in the worst shape in the country. You know it’s bad when authors start writing books about it. And according to the most recent book written on the subject, Illinois’ government employee pension system isn’t just 50th in the nation, it’s a scam.
The book is titled, ‘Ilinois Pension Scam’ by Bill Zettler. The work’s own description begins with an excerpt from Webster’s Dictionary, ‘Scam: a fraudulent or deceptive act.’
The author quotes surveys and other data to support his condemning conclusions. One statistic comes from Pew Research which found that, ‘Illinois ranks dead last with only 51% of its pension obligations funded.’ The book suggests that dilemma isn’t the result of poor financial planning alone, as the state’s public sector unions continue to insist. Along with it, the author suggests that a mutually beneficial alliance has been in control of Illinois’ pension system for nearly a half century. That alliance includes, ‘collusion between public sector unions and the politicians they have funded with member dues.’
According to the data provided, Illinois public sector unions have seen 130 benefit increases since 1970. That amounts to an average of 3 benefit hikes per year for the last 42 years. One specific result of those benefit increases is the number of 6-digit pensions among state retirees. Creating millionaires among simple municipal employees, the state’s pension system currently awards $100,000 annual payments to over 6,700 retirees. According to author Bill Zettler, that number is increasing by a staggering 20 percent per year. In less than 8 years, Illinois taxpayers will be forced to fund more than 25,000 6-digit pensions.
Taxpayer watchdog speaks-out

Showing their outrage over the bloated state employee pension system in Illinois, the taxpayer advocacy group Taxpayers United of America has been speaking out and raising awareness. In the group’s latest release, they quote Zettler’s book ‘Illinois Pension Scam’ to illustrate their argument. ‘How much pension should be paid to part-time employees with partial careers?’ TUA quotes the book.
According to Taxpayer United’s Jim Tobin, the book’s shocking statistics, “raise many questions, especially when comparing salaries and pension benefits of Illinois government employees with workers in the private sector.” By contrast, Tobin quotes Crain’s Chicago Business in confirming that only 3% of private sector workers are covered by a ‘defined-benefit plan’ such as government employee unions are. Just 20 years ago, 28 percent of private sector employees had similar plans.
The numbers

TUA extracts a number of other statistics from Zettler’s book to illustrate their point. Those details include (from Taxpayers United of America):

• The average retired government-school teacher was a part-time employee with a part-time career.

• Teachers work 170 days or 34 weeks a year or less (182 workdays minus 12 sick days or personal days, per the standard teachers’ contract). Teacher pensions that teachers describe as “modest” are four to seven times larger than Social Security.

• The average pension in the Teachers Retirement System is $46,000. Average age of retirement is 58, and the average years worked is 25.

• For private-sector employees with college degrees, a career typically begins at age 22 and ends at its earliest after 40 years at age 62 or more likely after 44 years at age 66. For government-school teachers on the other hand, less than one percent work 40 years or more before they retire, and the average teacher works only 25 years.

The book’s author Bill Zettler concludes, “Twenty-five years is not a full career nor are 170 days a full-time job.”
Taxpayers United of America isn’t the only group shining a spotlight on Illinois’ pension “scam”. Local taxpayer watchdog group For the Good of Illinois has also been critical of the cushy state government pension plans. In just two instances uncovered by the organization, one retired union teacher is receiving over $100,000 per year while the other is receiving over $100,000 per month. Each worked only one day as a teacher in Illinois to qualify for those multi-million dollar benefit packages.
For additional information, read the April 5 edition of this column, ‘Secret Memo shows No Confidence in Illinois State Pensions’.
According to Jim Tobin and Taxpayers United, one of the reasons they are publicly raising a warning is to offset the self-interested and less than honest media campaign being waged by the state’s teachers unions. Tobin’s statement concludes, ‘The Illinois Education Association (IEA) and other public unions, in their members’ letters to the media, claim that the average pensions of government state employees are “modest” and “reasonable”. TUA concludes that million dollar pensions for part-time work over a part-time career are neither “modest” nor “reasonable”.

Gary Heiser wrote a letter to the editor  in the Pekin Daily Times featuring TUA’s three part series on the Illinois pension problem.

To the editor:
The editorial on pension reform was informative, but it did not go far enough into the problem. The editorial needed to expose the obscene retirement packages that Illinois taxpayers have to fund. Not only do state employees have the option of retiring at an early age, the dollar amount of the pensions are totally out of line. Most private sector workers have to save and invest to assure they have the funds to survive their retirement years. This is not the case with the people in the State Employment Retirement System. They receive close to full pay for life. Talk about a sweet deal!
I am listing some examples of retired state employees’ pensions that I consider obnoxious. State human services retiree Sadrashiv Parwatikar retired at age 64 and receives an annual pension of $184,470. To date he has received $1,464,787. State human services retiree Kamal Modir retired at age 60 and receives an annual pension of $166,732; to date he has received $1,981,427. An example of state police pensions is $134,026 per year (John Lofton, retired at age 58 and has collected $1,077,048 to date).
The state university pensions are also out of control, two examples, Tapus K. Das Gupta, his annual pension is $426,855 and Edward Abraham has an annual pension of $414,709. All of these pensions are in the “double wow” factor.
All of the SERS pension info is available on the Taxpayers United of America website, www.taxpayersunited.org. It should be noted that all of the Springfield Democrats voted to approve the 67 percent state income tax surcharge. All of the tax dollars collected from this surcharge are being pumped into the state pension fund.
All of these pensions are an outrage and shame on our governors and congressmen (past and present) for allowing this type of thievery from the hard-working taxpayers of Illinois. With that said, I shudder to think what the pensions are for federal retirees.
— Gary Heiser, Pekin

Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United for America, is quoted in the following story from the Chicago Tribune.
This month, for the first time in their lives, some 10- and 11-year-old Cub Scouts from Chicago built a fire, pitched tents and slept under the stars.
The kids discovered the great outdoors in a small patch of Cook County Forest Preserve across the street from a housing development in Tinley Park. It’s not wilderness, troop leader Ariadna Sanchez conceded, but for one night, she said, it was another world.
“It gives them the feel for the outdoors while living in the city,” she said. “You can be in nature but still be safe. If you need to get a pizza, you can still go to the mall.”
Long derided as neglected natural resources, the forest preserves of suburban Cook County may not be an obvious destination for those looking to escape the urban hustle and bustle. County officials hope to change that perception — and are banking on a proposed investment of up to $22 million in upgrades to lure campers.
The proposal is part of County Board President — and former Girl Scout — Toni Preckwinkle’s goal to improve neglected district facilities and provide more recreation in hopes of attracting more people to the preserves.
Currently, only youth groups are allowed to camp overnight, and they accounted for 5,000 stays last year. The idea is to open the preserves to adult and family camping, which are currently prohibited. As officials draw up a camping master plan, the changes could also provide greater access for people with disabilities, and possibly for corporate retreats, day camps, RVs and campers.
This spring, officials sought feedback on the plan from groups like Boy Scouts of America, YMCA and Sierra Club. A public input period on the master plan runs through Monday at preserve nature centers and at http://fpdcc.com/camping/. Public meetings will be held on the proposal this summer, and if the plan is finalized by August, officials hope to have new facilities ready for use starting by late next year.
The proposed changes come at a time when the number of people camping nationally has been holding fairly steady. The Outdoor Foundation, an industry group, reported that while the number of people camping decreased 10 percent in 2011, camping had increased during the recession as a cheap getaway. Participation is spread evenly across income levels and ages, the group says.
Elsewhere in the Chicago area, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties all offer forest preserve camping, which attracts thousands of campers each year, generally starting May 1. Illinois state parks offer sites year-round, and now is the time to make summer reservations, because the half-dozen most popular sites, like Chain O’ Lakes and Starved Rock state parks, generally fill up.
Cook County also offered public camping in the past. At one time it had nine camps, most of which were acquired from other organizations. But over the years, the district didn’t maintain the sites, some of which dated from the 1930s, said Gordie Kaplan, executive director of the American Camp Association, Illinois. The sites deteriorated, and many were eventually closed.
The county now has three campsites, plus three others operated by youth organizations. But the remaining sites are run down and in less-than-idyllic locations — near main roads or under an airplane flight path, said forest preserve Commissioner Timothy Schneider.
He supports creating new campsites to get people out to enjoy the forest preserves, which cover more than a 10th of all land in Cook County, according to the district.
“There’s never been an emphasis on camping as long as I’ve been commissioner,” Schneider said. “We need to provide more passive recreation in our forest preserves so people can realize what a beautiful environment we have.”
For dramatic landscapes, officials admit, forest preserves can’t compete with some out-of-state sites that lure Chicago-area residents, like Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. But for convenience and affordability, district Executive Director Arnold Randall said, the preserves offer an easy way to introduce beginners to the great outdoors.
The preserves also encompass a mix of woods, marshes, rivers, ponds, hills, rare orchids and a variety of wildlife, including a recently discovered nest of bald eagles.
A big goal is to make outdated facilities more appealing. Instead of fly-ridden outhouses and pump wells, Randall said, officials hope to offer amenities like hot showers and better access for people with disabilities. A new conference room might provide room for corporate retreats. To complement the campgrounds, the district might have activities like naturalist-led hikes, team building or ropes courses, and mount a marketing campaign to attract visitors.
“We want to do it really well,” Randall said. “We want to have a lot of different experiences for people and be known regionally as a destination.”
One potential model for such a facility, suggested by supporters, is Lakewood Forest Preserve, Lake County’s largest, which offers camping, fishing, a dog area, miles of trails and a local history museum in Wauconda.
Because alcohol is allowed in the Cook County preserves, the district likely would have to beef up security by its own police or other alternatives such as park rangers to combat late-night partying.
While the measure appears to have support among Cook County Board members, who double as forest preserve commissioners, not everyone loves the idea. Jim Tobin, president of the Taxpayers United of America, said the notion of spending $22 million on campsites is a “travesty,” noting that as a boy in Chicago, he and his friends used to ride bikes and camp by day in forest preserves without a formal campsite.
During hard economic times, following a major state income tax increase, Tobin said, governments should be cutting spending, not increasing it.
Officials plan to borrow the money by starting to issue bonds this June, and plan to repay it from existing revenue in a balanced budget without raising taxes, Randall said. As proposed, $100 million to $110 million in new borrowed money would go to a variety of projects for the next five years.
In addition to the money earmarked for new and upgraded campgrounds, the spending could include $25 million for buying land, about $10 million for improvements to the Brookfield Zoo and $7 million for Chicago Botanic Garden upgrades. User fees — currently $10 per night per tent, though an increase is possible — would also help pay for camping operating expenses.
Bob Buehler, Cub Scout master of Pack 381 in Buffalo Grove, welcomed the plan as a way to offer an underrated and satisfying reconnection with nature. Buehler grew up on Chicago’s South Side and spent a lot of time in the preserves as a Boy Scout.
“It’s always nice to get out in nature and see there’s things bigger than us and our day-to-day lives,” he said. “You lose touch with that in the city. Even in those little patches of forest across the street from a Hackney’s restaurant, it feels like you’re out in the woods.”
To help draw up the camping plan the Forest Preserve District last fall hired Dallas landscape architecture firm Studio Outside for $300,000.