Findings from TUA’s pension project on Kansas City, Kansas, are featured in this story from Fox 4 Kansas City. To watch the report, click here.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One of the largest taxpayer organizations in the United States is in Kansas, calling for reform of government worker pensions. Taxpayers United of America claims many government employees will become pension millionaires after they retire, with taxpayers footing the bill.
Taxpayers United calculated the top 25 pensions for government employees in Wyandotte and Douglas counties. The group is using these numbers to back its claim that taxpayers can no longer afford to pay for generous pensions.
Taxpayers United claims that if Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Rick Armstrong retires at 55 and lives until he’s 85, Kansas taxpayers will provide him nearly $3 million in pension payments. Armstrong tops the list of pension payouts for government workers in Wyandotte county. In all the grassroots group says the top 25 public pensions in Wyandotte county will cost taxpayers more than $54 million if all the retirees live to age 85.
“These are quite astronomical amounts,” said Christina Tobin, vice president of Taxpayers United of America. “We’re here to shed a light and connect these names with these amounts. These are pension payouts that the taxpayers of Kansas City, they pay for these pensions.”
Other high-profile names on group’s Wyandotte list:
County Administrator Dennis Hays can expect to receive more than $2.5 million in pension payments. Fire Chief John Jones, more than $2.8 million. Even Unified Government Public Relations Director Mike Taylor made the list, with estimated lifetime pension payments totaling more than $1.5 million. Taxpayers seemed stunned.
“I don’t have a pension,” said Vicki Smith of Kansas City, Kan. “My husband doesn’t have a pension. My dad didn’t have a pension. He died when he was 80. My mom is living on retirement savings now. That’s how it ought to be. No, I don’t like subsidizing government officials of any kind.”
Taxpayers United says current employees should contribute at least 10 percent of their own money to their generous pensions. And the group says all new government workers should go into a 401k retirement plan, where they are responsible for saving for their own retirement. Wyandotte county taxpayers Fox 4 News talked with agree, saying that’s how it works for them.
“I fund my own,” said Heather Jones of Kansas City, Kan. “My company helps match some of what I put toward it, which I think is acceptable. But I still have to contribute to my own retirement plan. I work hard and I should be responsible for my own financial stability. I should not expect other people’s hard earned money to pay my way.”
Because of the President’s Day holiday, FOX4 couldn’t reach many of the Unified Government employees on the pension list. But a public safety worker on the list commented off camera, saying the pension helps attract people to careers in dangerous professions that require working holidays and all hours of the day and night. He also claims life expectancy for police officers after they retire is only about ten years.
To see Taxpayers United’s complete list of top government pensions in the city of Lawrence, Wyandotte and Douglas counties, click here.
Jim Tobin, President of Taxpayers United for America, is quoted in the following story from WREX 13 NBC.
By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ distressed prepaid tuition program could receive a cash infusion from taxpayers, even though it is not backed by the state.
State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, is backing legislation that would require the General Assembly to cover salaries and benefits for employees of College Illinois!, which is facing a deficit of $559.9 million.
The $3.2 million in annual salaries and benefits for those employees for fiscal 2011 are paid out of the returns on the 12-year-old fund’s investments.
That figure could drop substantially if the General Assembly picks up the tab. Some employees of Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers College Illinois!, only spend part of their time working on prepaid tuition fund, according to Durkin’s office.
Durkin also is asking the state to cover the fund’s annual management and administrative expenses of $3.7 million, which also are paid out of the returns on the investments.
“They are state employees and the (contract holders) should not be paying for salary and benefits of people who administer College Illinois!,” Durkin said. “I also believe the administrative and marketing fees fall under that category.”
John Samuels, a spokesman for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, said Durkin’s legislation is under review.
“We haven’t had time to fully analyze what impact it might have on the program. We appreciate Rep. Durkin’s sincere commitment to the College Illinois! program and its contract holders and will continue to work with him and other stakeholders,” Samuels said.
The $1.1 billion fund allows residents to purchase tuition at a university or college for a child at the current rate. College Illinois! then invests that money with the hope that by the time the child is college-bound, the original investment and profits realized from the investment will cover the cost of tuition.
Questionable investments, the Great Recession and spiking tuition costs have created an unfunded liability in the fund of 30 percent, or $559.9 million.
Part of the uproar over College Illinois! is that investors said it was marketed as being backed by the state, meaning that even if the investments tanked, the state would rescue the fund.
In reality, College Illinois! is not backed by the state. The fund can ask the state for a bailout, but the Legislature doesn’t have an obligation to say yes.
Durkin said his legislation is the first of many steps needed to revive the program, but insisted that it isn’t the start of a much larger taxpayer bailout.
“There may be a time and a place down the road where we will have that discussion. I’m hoping to avoid that. I think that we can put our collective thoughts and our talent together to revise the program,” Durkin said.
Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America, a taxpayer watchdog group, called giving any taxpayer money to the ailing fund “dumb.”
The fund “shouldn’t be bailed out. It’ll just encourage more … improper investment decisions. It’s best for folks to save their money in the private sector, almost anywhere but with the government,” Tobin said.
Ginnie Flynn and her husband, Dan, bought two semesters for their oldest daughter. Ginnie Flynn said she appreciates the efforts to fix the fund, but she has realistic expectations about its future.
“My hope is the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I don’t think the state is going to 100 percent fix this. I don’t think investors are going to come out 100 percent unscathed,” Flynn said.
College Illinois! has enough assets to fund the program for the next decade. However, the last contract will expire in 2029, long after the fund runs dry if nothing changes.
Another solution to the fund’s crisis is for the state’s universities to give tuition discounts to College Illinois! students.
Colleges and universities, which are owed $880 million by the state already, have been lukewarm to that idea.
“We have lots and lots of needs so it would be difficult to give the College Illinois! students’ special” treatment, Rita Cheng, chancellor for Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. “We’d have to look at it on a case by case basis.”
Jan Dennis, a spokesman for the University of Illinois, the state’s largest university system, said the university knows of the idea of discounts but doesn’t have a position yet.
TUA’s call for Ohio Gov. John Kasich to release pension data was featured in this Lima News article.
CHICAGO – Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly are being asked to set the standard for transparency by releasing information about their government pension.
“Ohio is one of a few states that interprets its Open Records Act exception regarding personal information to include pension payments. But as long as taxpayers fund the pensions, they have a right to review them,” said Christina Tobin, the vice presiden of Taxpayers United of America (TUA).
TUA was in Ohio last week, releasing pension estimates for government employees. The first stop was the Ohio Capitol to hand-deliver letters to Kasich and lawmakers that uged them to change the culture of secrecy surrounding government employee pension benefit amounts.
“In order to have the critical dialogue about meaningful pension reforms, Ohioans need to know exactly what kind of lavish pensions their tax dollars are providing for government employees.” said Tobin.
She sees no reason for the numbers to be kept from the public.
“They can champion a culture of transparency to ensure honesty and integrity through unlimited public review of all taxpayer funds.” said Tobin.
