Chicago Sun-Times Editorial: Cut huge pensions that bleed taxpayers

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial: Cut huge pensions that bleed taxpayers
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
September 15, 2009
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1770969,CST-EDT-edit15.article


Allow us first to review some of the lame excuses, rationalizations and whining, if only so we can ridicule it all.
That will make us feel good.

Then we'll move on to what can be done about this mess -- the travesty of overly generous public pensions that are bleeding Illinois taxpayers. That's not as much fun as ridicule, but it could save us a few bucks.

Over the last four days, in a Chicago Sun-Times investigation called "Pension Bonanza," reporters Tim Novak, Chris Fusco and Art Golab have documented the whole sorry saga of Cadillac state pensions.

Dr. Alon Winnie, who draws the richest state pension, defended his $447,233 a year by telling our reporters, "If you were with a good company, you'd have a helluva lot better benefits."

Got that? Dr. Winnie's defense is that he could have earned a lot more money in the private sector, so basically he did us a favor.

Let us remember that -- Thank you, Dr. Winnie -- the next time we get hit up for higher taxes.

Cook County Commissioner Earlean Collins, who collects a $75,921 annual state pension while being paid $85,000 by the county, said to our reporters: "Tell the truth about the whole story . . . that it's legal."

Got that? It's legal. So who cares that it's also a scam.

Reginald L. Weaver, an elementary school teacher who enjoys a yearly state pension of $226,485 because he also once headed the National Education Association, complained that it is "unfortunate" for the Sun-Times to "focus" on his stunning pension when so many kids today are still going to bad schools.

Got that? Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

We can't help but wonder how many more school textbooks those kids might have if the state were not burning money on obscenely high pensions for the likes of Weaver.

Of all the Cadillac pensioners featured in the Sun-Times series, only one -- former state comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch -- offered a defense we could fully respect:

"I know I get a big pension. What am I supposed to do? Refuse it? There's no question there has to be changes."

Absolutely. Big changes.

And here's how:

•Raise the minimum age at which City of Chicago and Cook County workers can receive a pension from 50 to at least 60. Private companies don't pay pensions that early; neither does Social Security.

•End "double-dipping," the practice by which a worker collects a pension from one government job while on the payroll for another government job.

•End the practice of increasing state pensions 3 percent a year. Automatic raises are rare for private pensions, and Social Security payments are increased only by the cost of living, which is usually less than 3 percent a year.

•Tax pensions. Illinois is one of the few states that does not. As Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown suggested Sunday, this could be a progressive tax, exempting the first $50,000 to $75,000.

•Revoke an absurd state law that allows dozens of lucky people to collect public pensions based not just on their government jobs, but also on private-sector jobs for labor unions, lobbying groups and other nongovernmental organizations. That law allowed a former city road worker, Dennis J. Gannon, to collect a yearly city pension of $153,649 --largely on the basis of his big salary later as head of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

•And finally, as we have urged before, it's time to impose a two-tier pension for state employees, with new hires getting less than current employees.

The vast majority of public pension recipients, of course, don't get the golden deals of the Gannons, the Winnies, the Weavers and the Netsches. We know that.

But a two-tiered system could save the state billions of dollars in the long run, simply by bringing state pensions more in line with those in the private sector.