New Double-Dipping Outrage: Ex-Hinsdale Official Collects Pension, Gets New Public Job

By on May 24, 2021   /   Latest  

View as PDF

“Government employees, whose salaries are paid with taxpayer dollars, generally make more money and have fatter pensions than those in the private sector,” said Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA). “Then, there are some government employees who multiply their incomes by using a legal but slimy technique known as double-dipping.”

Tobin pointed to a recent article by David Giuliani of patch.com concerning Darrell Langlois, former finance director of Hinsdale, IL. As Giuliani’s article make clear:

With his pension and salary, Darrell Langlois, Hinsdale’s former finance director, is making nearly $200,000 a year, according to public records.

Hinsdale’s finance director retired in February, but he already had a new public job lined up. He became the assistant controller at Joliet Junior College. He started collecting a public pension, and he is listed as paying into a new government pension system at the college. This is all allowed under state law. But many critics of the state’s pension rules call such a practice “double-dipping.”

According to public records, Langlois’ final salary in Hinsdale was $185,800. He is being paid $110,000 a year at Joliet Junior College.

His $87,700 annual pension is from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. He paid into the system as the finance director of Oak Brook and then Hinsdale, for a total of 28 years. He contributed a total of $154,000 during that time. With the pension and salary, Langlois is now making $197,700 a year.

Under pension rules, Langlois, like all retired public employee, gets an automatic 3 percent increase every year. Under the state constitution, this percentage cannot be reduced. In 10 years, Langlois is slated to get a pension of nearly $114,000.

The 3 percent yearly pay raise often exceeds the inflation rate. With the rate of inflation, a person retiring in 2011 with Langlois’ pension of $87,700 would have seen that amount rise to $104,000 a decade later. That’s $10,000 less than what Langlois is set to get.

Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, a nonprofit research group, states, “It’s just wrong that in a state troubled by a pension crisis, with the state not making ends meet, that our legislators continue to allow this kind of double-dipping. It should have been stopped a long time ago.”

“You should blame the legislators. The employees are doing what they are incentivized to do. The lawmakers need to unwind this.”

Source: https://patch.com/illinois/hinsdale/ex-hinsdale-official-collects-pension-gets-new-public-job

Back to Top

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: ANOTHER ENORMOUS BOONDOGGLE PROPOSED FOR CHICAGO FUNDED BY ILLINOIS TAXPAYERS

By on May 21, 2021   /   Latest  

View as PDF

“In 1995, Chicago politicians proposed a gigantic boondoggle called The Chicago Central Area Circulator,” said Jim Tobin, economist and president of Taxpayers United of America (TUA). “At that time I had been fighting taxes for 19 years, and the Circulator was the worst boondoggle I had ever seen. The trolley that been proposed was a 10-mile streetcar project featuring 19th-century technology that would have cost taxpayers at least one billion dollars.”


“Our taxpayer organization sponsored and financed a report by a leading transportation expert that showed what a colossal waste of money would occur building this obsolete and unnecessary trolley system in Chicago. The politicians eventually were shamed into pulling the proposal.”


“Now, in 2021, the tax-and-spend politicians, along with their well-connected contractors and unions, are back, and what they propose is an obscene project that is the last thing the bankrupt City of Chicago and State of Illinois need.” The so-called ONE Central Mixed-Use Project, from Landmark Development, is proposed for approximately 32 acres of rail yards between the McCormick Place Convention Center and the Museum Campus on the Near South Side.


The proposal would be anchored by a multi-modal transit hub. It would also include up to 9,050 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of retail uses, 9.45 million square feet of office space, 1.5 million square feet of hotel uses, 350,000 square feet of event space, 3,500 parking stalls and a shopping center, even though there is no clear use for a hub at this location.


The developer of the mega project has proposed nine eventual high-rises planned near Soldier Field while adding green space and improving connections to the Central Station neighborhood on the west. Some towers planned for later stages could be from 60 to 89 stories


“The proposed $20 billion project would include $6.5 billion from state taxpayers,” said Tobin. “This is outrageous. The long-term futures of the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois are extremely bleak, even with federal bailout cash. Illinois taxpayers can’t afford this $20 billion smoke dream.”

Back to Top

General Assembly Retirement System Creates Taxpayer-Funded Millionaires

By on May 15, 2021   /   Illinois, Latest  


View As PDF

“The surest way to wealth during the Covid economy is to have an Illinois state government pension,” said Matthew Schultz, executive director of the Taxpayers Education Foundation (TEF). “TEF has analyzed the six major pension funds, and the first study we are going to release is about the worst offender: GARS, (the General Assembly Retirement System).”

“GARS is filled with former Illinois politicians who are absolutely raking in the money! According to our report, 246 taxpayer-subsidized pensioners within the system will receive payouts of at least a million dollars over their lifetime. This is because, on average, retirees within the system only pay 5.4% of this amount into the system. In other words, for every $5.40 spent on their pension, retired politicians will receive a guaranteed $100 during their lifetime.”

“Besides direct contributions into the fund, there are two other notable forms of funding, investment revenue, and money taken from taxpayers. However, what is often not understood about the fund is that the overwhelming majority of its cash influx comes directly from taxpayers.”

“In the year 2018, politicians paid $1,284,707 into their own pension systems. $5,140,250 came from investment income, and a whopping $21,721,000 was paid by taxpayers. Basic calculations tell us that for every dollar added to the fund from either politicians or investments, taxpayers added $3.38.”

“In just a few years, the situation has greatly changed. According to our latest numbers, politicians have deposited, $1,205,930 less than the year before. Following the trend, investment income has been slashed to $2,581,064. Meanwhile, as Illinois residents continue to suffer from economic hardship brought about by statewide lockdowns, Illinois taxpayers paid into GARS an astounding $25,754,000. Now, for every dollar added to the fund from either politicians or investments, taxpayers added $6.80.”

gars revenue 2021
gars funding

“Thanks to the iron grip on taxpayers’ wallets during the politician-inflicted slump, the fund has improved its position. The fund now has 16.50% of the assets required to make retired politicians millionaires. It only needs $319,263,796 more, mostly from taxpayers. This, assumes of course that the situation doesn’t get any worse.”

“To give an example of the pensioners within the fund, here is a list of some. Keep in mind, these are only the pensions from GARS, and do not include other pensions they may be receiving.”

“James Edgar (R), famous for playing a part in breaking the already broken pension system, receives an annual pension of $181,230. He only paid $164,657 into the system, and is estimated to receive $4,771,192 by the time he is 85 years old. His annual pension, like every GARS pension, is subject to a compound 3% cost of living adjustment increase every year. It is the driving force behind the Illinois pension crisis, and why Mr. Edgar’s lifetime payout is so enormous.”

“Former governor, Patrick J. Quinn Jr. (D), the so-called “reform” governor, currently receives an annual pension of $149,882. He has received a total pension to date of $694,733. His estimated lifetime pension payout is $3,255,658.”

“According to estimates, the average GARS recipient receives $61,027 annually, with an estimated lifetime payout of $1,420,329. The average years ‘employed’ in this part time job is 14.8 years before retirement.

average gars

“In GARS, there are 221 recipients who are estimated to collect over $50,000 a year in GARS pensions annually, 76 of whom receive $100,000 or more annually, and one-member, lucky Edward F. Petka, receives over $200,000 annually. There are only 427 members within the fund at this time.”

gars over time

“While GARS is the smallest of the six major pension funds, its it a microcosm of the greater Illinois government pension crisis. The pension system is skewed to give out enormous payouts with little employee input. The system has no money, and is not kept afloat by brilliant investors but by frantic grabs at taxpayer dollars at the expense of the rest of the Illinois state budget. It is a system that has already blasted past its breaking point.”

Back to Top