Rockford Taxpayers Can’t Catch a Break

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Winnebago County increased property taxes by nearly $1 million for the 2021 tax year despite Rockford’s effort to keep taxes stable. While this tax increase was made in daylight, several tax increases have been heaped upon taxpayers under the cover of the corrupt and massive Illinois State government.

“Rockford taxpayers have been tolerating some of the highest tax rates in the state and the country,” stated Val W. Zimnicki of Taxpayers United of America. “Now they have state bureaucrats dumping on them as well.”

“Now that Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed SB508 into law, the state can sneak in new property taxes. Specifically, SB508 allows the state to increase this year’s property tax by the amount of refunds due to adjustments from last year.”

“So, when I get my senior discount, the amount I save is covered by everyone else in my district. A classic ‘redistribution of wealth’. That phrase, redistribution of wealth, is a misnomer. It conveniently leads one to believe that only the wealthy are negatively affected by it when, in reality, it affects the middle class by supplanting the tax burden to them.”

“The big guy in Springfield also keeps reducing the amount of revenue collected by the state income-tax that is returned to the local district. When Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) was enacted, the amount was set at 10% of the total state income-tax revenue collected to be returned to the local governments. Pritzker just decreased it to 6.06%! Bureaucrats want nothing else but to see property tax increases to offset this.

“Which brings us to the $64 million question: why are bureaucrats so despite to raise our taxes? Their own benefit, that’s what.  Many government employees are paid lavish salaries using our property taxes, which in turn sets their starting state pension. Furthermore, pension plans in the Illinois Municipal Retirement System are primarily funded with property taxes.”

The pensions and salaries of the local government retirees take the biggest bite out of the property-tax revenue pie. The government schools impose the greatest property tax hikes. Approximately 58.8% of property-tax increases went to the government schools.

“Rockford area government pensioners are bleeding the area’s taxpayers dry. How can a Winnebago County retiree soak the taxpayers for more than $5 million in property taxes? Simply by retiring at the age of 57 with an annual pension of $175,970. Winnebago County retiree Paul A. Logli did just that and will collect $5,074,976 over a normal lifetime.

“Retired Rockford teacher, Alan S. Brown, began draining taxpayers at the age of 55. His current annual pension is $194,493 and will accumulate to a stunning $5,322,245 when he reaches 85 years of age.”

“Kishwaukee College’s David Louis is on track to collect $4,735,522 by age 85, thanks to his constitutionally protected 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA) on his current annual pension of $197,577.”

“There are no quick fixes for Illinois’ dire financial situation, although the solutions are painfully obvious: stop adding new hires to the same broken system and place them in a defined contribution plan like a 401(k), increase the amount that government employees contribute to their own pension, get a referendum on the ballot to end the 3% compounded COLA.”

Click here to view top 200 Rockford IMRF 2020 pensions

Click here to view top 200 Rockford TRS pensions

Click here to view top 200 Rockford SURS pensions

Millionaire Monday: Robert Molaro

Robert Molaro

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Positively, absolutely nothing can stop the Illinois state pension madness as it is now, not even death.

Robert Molaro (D), was in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly and collected a enormous taxpayer subsidized pension. In 2019, not long before his death, Robert was collecting $141,972 estimated a year in pension payouts. He had put in only $109,860, and had received over his lifetime $1,233,126. Robert was expected to receive $4,322,660 by the time he reached 85.

Alas, Robert did not make it that long. On June 15th, 2020 Robert Molaro passed away. However, his pension certainly didn’t pass away. Instead, it was passed on to Barbara Molaro.

Who is Barbara Molaro, you might ask? Well, she was the late Robert’s wife, and also pled guilty in a ghost payroll case initiated by the feds. In 1996, Barbara Molaro was indicted by the feds under charges of receiving $40,000 during 6 years she was on the Illinois Senate payroll without having to do any work.

Barbara now receives as of 2021 and estimated $100,413 annually from a General Assembly Retirement System pension. By the time she is 85 she is expected to have received $1,933,043, the lion’s share coming from Illinois state taxpayers.

While is Barbara’s pension so high? That’s because her pension is calculated based off of what Robert Molaro was receiving. Why was Robert Molaro’s pension so high? Its because Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke hired Molaro as an expert on pensions of all things. Robert wrote a 19-page white paper on Chicago’s pension funds. Molaro worked as an aide to Burke for one month, earned $12,000, and nearly doubled his pension. For those that need a reminder, this is the same Burke that has a 14-count corruption case pending on him.

The Illinois government employee pension system, especially GARS is an absolute circus. There are plenty of pension millionaires, and we at Taxpayers United of America are going to put a spotlight on all of them. If taxpayers would like to view the latest annual report on Illinois pensions, there is a link to it on our website. 15th Annual Illinois Pension Report – Taxpayers United Of America

STATE PENSIONS FATTEN WALLETS OF RETIRED ILLINOIS POLITICIANS

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Top 200 GARS Pensions

Retired Illinois politicians have become pension millionaires and are getting richer by the day, while Illinois taxpayers lose their jobs, get behind on their mortgages and have trouble paying their bills, according to the most recent study of state pensions by the Taxpayer Education Foundation (TEF).

“These bloodsuckers that raised state taxes billions of dollars, and then retired, are getting lavish, gold-plated pensions and benefits,” said James L. Tobin, economist and TEF president. “Their functionally-bankrupt state pension plan, the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS), like the other state pension plans, has been kept on life-support with billion-dollar increases in the state income tax.”

“Thanks to the tax increases that many of these reprobates voted for, the state is economically dying and has lost population six years in a row.”

For 2019 and 2020, two GARS pensions exceed $200,000. From 2019 to 2020, the number of pensions exceeding $100,000 has gone from 62 to 71, and the number exceeding $50,000 has gone from 218 to 221.

The highest annual pension, $265,428, goes to retired legislator Arthur L. Berman (D), the author of the failed Berman Tax Increase Amendment, which we helped defeat years ago. Berman’s total pension paid to date is $3,670,815.

A central figure responsible for much of the pension crisis is former governor James R. Thompson (R), one of the worst tax-raisers in Illinois history. Thompson currently receives an annual pension of $165,987. He has received a total pension to date of $3,219,842. His estimated lifetime pension payout is $3,385,829.

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.

Former legislator and governor, James R. Edgar (R), receives a current annual pension of $175,952. He has received a total pension to date of $2,502,093, and his estimated lifetime pension payout is $4,755,649.

Edgar signed into law Senate Bill 3 in 1998, the biggest government pension increase in the history of Illinois. SB3 gave retired government teachers 75% of their salary at retirement, with annual compounded increases of 3 percent. SB3 will cost taxpayers $4.5 billion in 2020, which is 12% of the Illinois state budget!

The taxes to support these outrageous Illinois government pensions are driving taxpayers out of Illinois. Almost all of the last $5 billion-dollar state income tax increase was used to prop up the state pension funds. This is why Illinois governor Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker (D) wants to pass his Nov. 3. 2020 Income Theft Amendment, a massive state income tax increase for Illinois taxpayers. Instead of seeking pension reform, Pritzker wants another massive income tax hike.

Pritzker is destroying the Illinois economy. He wants to place more taxes on the backs of the state’s taxpayers, while he stubbornly enforces the Soviet-style state shutdown. Pritzker should explore significant reforms to the state’s bankrupt pension plans for retired government employees. He wasn’t elected to declare war on the state’s middle class.