A press release from State Rep. Barb Wheeler:
Wheeler Praises 64th District Community for Effort that Killed Senate Bill 16
CRYSTAL LAKE – Representative Barbara Wheeler (R-Crystal Lake) has praised the people of the 64th District for their tireless efforts that put a halt to Senate Bill 16.
Senate Bill 16 would have made major changes to the state education funding formula, shifting millions of dollars in state funding away from McHenry and Lake County schools. Wheeler noted that without the combined engagement of so many community members, both from within the education system from outside it, putting a halt to SB 16 would not have been possible.
Barb Wheeler
“Senate Bill 16 was a bad bill, based on arbitrary distribution methods that would have done major damage to our suburban schools,” said Wheeler.
“Without the involvement of so many members our community, stopping this bill would have not been a reality. I want to thank the thousands of concerned parents and citizens that attended the public forum in McHenry or signed the petition online.
“The school districts also did a tremendous job in communicating with the parents on just how damaging this bill would have been for our children’s education. Without these combined efforts, our schools would be headed down a path to a shambolic redistribution of funding.”
Wheeler also noted that the six-thousand plus slips of opposition presented during last month’s joint hearing of the House Elementary & Secondary Education Committee and House
Crystal Lake Elementary District 47 sent out a post card to every resident. This is the address side.
Appropriations – Elementary & Secondary Education Committee played a pivotal role in quashing SB 16. During the hearing, hundreds of parents, school officials, and financial officers appeared in person to voice opposition to the bill.
This is the back of the post card opposing Senate Bill16.
Those appearing noted not only the damage that would be done to the education system, but also the fact it would further exacerbate undue pressure already placed on the backs of over-stressed property taxpayers.
During the hearing, Wheeler also signed on as chief co-sponsor to House Resolution 1335, which would have created a House Education Funding Advisory Committee.
The primary purpose of the advisory committee would have been to conduct a thorough review of the existing school funding formula and make recommendations for reforms that would create a funding system that would be adequate, equitable and which prepares students for achievement and success after high school.
While the creation of the committee now stands in limbo due to the death of SB 16, should new legislation come about in the upcoming 99th General Assembly to re-write the state education funding formula there will undoubtedly be a call for the formation of such a committee to prevent a similar bill to SB 16 being jammed through the legislature.
“Ensuring our children have the best education possible is one of the most important things our community must do,” said Wheeler. “Rushing into a drastic overhaul of our state’s funding distribution would have done irreparable damage to our children’s future and thanks to the efforts of so many we were able to prevent this catastrophic legislation from taking effect.”
The PreK – 12 education funding system is in shambles.
Taking into account unfunded pension and liabilties, bond debt, annual school district budget, Illinois State Board of Education, Regional Board of Eduction, US Department of Education, special education and vocational districts, it’s unreal how much money is being spent on public education per student.
Not to mention the pensions and now retiree healthcare benefits are guaranteed in the Illinois State Constitution.
Pay hikes and legislative pension and healthcare benefit hikes helped create extremely high costs for a government monopoly that allows no choice and often mediocre results in the form of remedial level classes required in college.
It all started in 1970 with 1 sentence added to the Illinois State Constitution at the Constitution Convention, 44 years ago, stating pensions cannot be diminished or impaired.
They went hog wild after that, in many cases.
There’s always exceptions.
And all we hear is the teacher union crying that every single criticism is an attack on public education.
All you can do to pacify a teacher union is give them as much money as they want and only compliment them, never criticize them.
But does the teacher union ever explain all the taxpayer costs involved in educating a student as listed above?
No.
The proposed cuts would have been what, 1 – 3% out of the annual budget of most school districts negatively affected?
And what do school districts do when they have to cut?
Do they have a hard freeze including those inline for their retirement bonuses?
Oh no, rarely.
It’s typically a soft freeze with various exceptions.
It’s a system gone mad.
How about if Ms. Wheeler explains to the taxpayer all the costs as listed above.
Now that would be eye opening.
Is this press release an attempt to deflect attention from her vote in favor of a tax increase for MCCD?
Amen to this!
I hope the school teachers and administrators realize that the Democrats (who supported this outrageous bill to financially help Chicago) ultimately are no friends of education.
Democrats are just friendly to the Democratic Party and their political allies.
They USE “the children”, “the poor”, “the marginalized”, the “minorities”, the “victims of society”, and all their “compassionate” terms for people…..and use them for their political gain at the detriment of the people they claim to “serve”.
Liberalism NEVER works.
SB 16 is a perfect example of why the Democrats harm the very people they claim to help and would have been yet another disastrous liberal failure.
It really isn’t that hard to conclude; you just have to take your political blinders off.
Here are recent Superintendent costs for Crystal Lake CCSD 47 (elementary and middle school district).
Year – Name ————– Salary – Experience – Salary per Year of Service
2015 – Kathleen Hinz —- $173,000 – 19 – $09,105
2014 – Kathleen Hinz —- $160,121 – 18 – $08,895
2013 – Donn Mendoza —– $???,??? – 18 – $??,???
2012 – Donn Mendoza —– $178,095 – 17 – $10,476
2011 – Donn Mendoza —– $165,000 – 16 – $10,312
2010 – Donn Mendoza —– $165,000 – 15 – $11,000
2009 – Ronald Miller —- $233,771 – 29 – $08,061
2008 – Ronald Miller —- $212,520 – 28 – $07,590
2007 – Ronald Miller —- $196,920 – 27 – $07,293
2006 – Ronald Miller —- $188,270 – 26 – $07,241
2005 – Ronald Miller —- $186,835 – 25 – $07,473
2004 – Ronald Miller —- $169,980 – 24 – $07,083
2003 – Ronald Miller —- $167,500 – 23 – $07,283
2002 – Richard Bernotas – $171,250 – 33 – $05,189
2001 – Richard Bernotas – $165,000 – 32 – $05,156
2000 – Richard Bernotas – $137,500 – 31 – $04,435
1999 – Richard Bernotas – $126,500 – 30 – $04,217
Sources are Family Taxpayers, Illinois State Board of Education Teacher Service Record, Public Acts 96-0434 and 96-0266, and a Patch article for Kathleen Hinz’s 2015 salary which may not include any pension pickup and other perks.
It would be nice if District 47 had the state mandated Salary and Benefit reports archived on their website so we would know Mendoza’s 2013 compensation.
But the state only mandates the reports be posted, no requirement to keep prior year’s postings archived on the website.
Hinz was interim Superintendent in 2014 so that can account for the big salary jump from 2014 to 2015.
Want to see how salaries are soaring.
Compare Salary to Years of Service.
That’s the the Salary divided by the # of Years Worked (aka Experience).
The last column in the chart above.
Costs have skyrocketed over the years.
So a lot of the property tax hikes for schools are going straight out of your pockets and into the employee’s pockets in the form of pay hikes.
And that doesn’t include the most lucrative aspect of their compensation, which is the pension.
Contributions flowing into the pension fund come from the employees, employers, and the State of Illinois.
In the majority of school districts in Illinois, employees contribute little to nothing to the pension fund; rather; the employer “picks up” the pension contribution.
Even in school districts where the employer does not “pick up” the pension contribution for the teachers, often the employer does “pick up” the pension contribution for the administrators and / or Superintendent.
The cash value or present value of a 33 year career Illinois teacher and administrator pension is easily over $1 million in the Chicago suburbs, and their contributions to that pension fund are usually recouped in the first 1 – 3 years of retirement.
Your Social Security and 401K is far less lucrative than their pension.
Try comparing the cash value or present value of your social security and 401k at retirement to a teacher / administrator pension.
Your Social Security and 401K is not guaranteed in any constitution.
Their pension is guaranteed in the Illinois State constitution.
It’s a system gone mad.
Taxpayers are sitting ducks, having no real clue how the money is being spent.
And what are Wheeler and Tryon doing to expose how taxpayer money is being spent?
It’s gotten so bad, we have gone backwards for teacher and administrator salary transparency.
Teacher and administrator salaries from 1999 – 2012 are posted on Family Taxpayers Foundation.
From 2002 – 2012, teacher and administrator salaries were posted on the Illinois State Board of Education website in the Teacher Service Record.
For the last few years, teacher and administrator salaries are posted on Better Government Association, Open The Books.
That all came to a screeching halt with the 2013 and 2014 years.
No teacher and administrator salaries on Family Taxpayers Foundation, Illinois State Board of Education, Better Government Association (they use data year which is not the year of the data but the year they obtain the data), and Open the Books.
Those organizations cannot obtain the salaries for whatever strange and weird reason from whomever they previously received the salaries, which would be the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois or the Illinois State Board of Education.
The Teachers Retirement System is the best place to obtain salary data, because that’s the amount used to calculate pensions.
So transparency for teacher and administrator salaries has gone BACKWARDS the last two years.
Their is LESS transparency.
Starting three or 4 years ago, various laws (Public Acts) were passed requiring school districts to post the salaries and benefits of teachers and administrators on their website by a certain date.
Many school districts simply ignore the laws.
There is no penalty requirement for not posting.
What’s Tryon and Wheeler doing to fix that non-compliance?
And if the school districts do post the salaries and benefits, most school districts don’t keep the reports archived on the website past the current year, because it’s not required by law to keep prior year’s reports archived.
What are Tryon and Wheeler doing to fix that loophole.
Why are the local school districts not keeping the reports archived on their website, if they are so parent and taxpayer friendly?
Thanks all of the above for helping us parents and taxpayers understand how our money is being spent.
But if school district revenue is threatened to be cut, which could eventually cut into employee pay and benefit hikes, look out, the sky is falling.
Meetings are called.
The PR campaign ramps up.
There’s a crisis.
Even though in actuality the cuts would have been 1 – 3% of most school district budgets who would suffer a cut, but they never tell you that.
Oh no.
They put the cuts as a percentage of General State Aid being received.
Well from putting 1 + 1 together, obviously school districts have many sources of revenue, and in wealthier school districts, their primary source of revenue is property taxes, not general state aid.
And school districts greatly benefit from the State of Illinois making a direct contribution to the Pension fund.
As designed, at least 1/2 of the contribution to the pension contribution is supposed to come from State, 1/2 from the employees, and a teeny tiny bit (less than 1/2 of 1%) from school districts.
And then we have Federal funding for eduction.
So there are 4 buckets of education funding.
1. Property Taxes.
2. General State Aid.
3. State Contribution to Pension Fund.
4. Federal Funding.
There are other buckets too, but hopefully that sheds some light on the subject for some people.
Please too many people haven’t a clue how this massive funding for government monopoly public education works.
School districts whom receive the majority of their revenue from property taxes benefit greatly from the State contribution to the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) of Illinois teacher and administrator Pension Fund.
School districts whom receive the majority of their revenue from property taxes, do not receive much General State Aid from the State of Illinois.
Those property tax wealthy school districts would have seen a reduction in General State Aid in SB 16.
Property tax wealthy school districts are sometimes found in blue collar communities, especially if there is a large industrial park, factory, etc.
The State contribution to the TRS pension fund is a very large portion of the state budget that should be included in any conversation about education funding.
That pension contribution has been hiked over the years as a result of legislative pension benefit hikes and local school district salary hikes.
The pension contribution has also been hiked by the state shorting or skipping its annual contribution.
But in the very same years the state shorted or skipped the pension contribution, the state legislature hiked pension benefits, and local school districts hiked salaries.
Completely dysfunctional.
Here are the pensions of former Superintendents Ronald Miller and Richard Bernotas.
Source: BetterGov.org – Better Government Association
Name—————–Pension—-Years of Service—Benefit Start Date—Data Year
Ronald Miller——–$141,768—31—————–7/1/2009————-2014
Ronald Miller——–$141,768—35—————–7/1/2009————-2013
Ronald Miller——–$141,768—31—————–7/1/2009————-2012
Richard F Bernotas—$162,514—34—————–6/29/2002————2014
Richard F Bernotas—$157,781—34—————–6/29/2002————2013
Richard F Bernotas—$153,185—34—————–6/29/2002————2012
Source: OpenTheBooks.com
Year—Name—————–Employer Name———–Pension
2002—Bernotas Richard F—Crystal Lake CCSD 47—-$162,514
2009—Miller Ronald——–Crystal Lake CCSD 47—-$141,768
Pensions are heavily subsidized by the State of Illinois in the form of the annual state contribution to the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) pension fund.
As designed, at least 1/2 of the pension contribution comes from the State of Illinois.
As designed, teachers and administrators are to contribute 9.4% of their salary to the pension fund.
In the majority of Illinois school districts, teachers and administrators contribute little to nothing to the pension fund.
Instead, the school district “picks up” the employee contribution.
In many or most situations, the pick up results in an increase to gross salary due to Federal tax rules.
Richard F Bernotas ended his career with 33 years worked, yet 34 years of service.
Ronald Miller ended his career with 29 years worked, yet 31 years of service.
Years worked is not used in the pension calculation.
Years of Service is used in the pension calculation.
They way to calculate Years of Service, is to start with Years Worked, and add gimmicks and loopholes.
35 Years of Service is required to receive full pension benefits, unless a loophole is used.
State legislative benefit hikes have added and enhanced gimmicks and loopholes over the years.
Here are some gimmicks and loopholes.
Employees can exchange unused sick leave for years of service credit, “purchase” years of service credits, and there are other loopholes.
For every year under 35 years of service, unless a gimmick or loophole is used, there is a reduction in the pension.
The system was originally designed without all the gimmicks and loopholes.
Another gimmick is the Early Retirement Option (ERO) which allows you to retire with as little as 20 years of service.
ERO benefits have been hiked by state legislators also.
Some gimmicks and loopholes such as ERO are funded by the employee and taxpayer.
In the case of ERO, the school district contributes twice as much as the employee.
Also in the case of ERO, the actuarial projections have come up short (a common scheme in Illinois pensions), so when ERO is renewed every 3 years by the legislature (it can be cancelled), the contributions are increased, but damage has already been done.
The general TRS pension formuala for Tier 1 (Tier II is employees beginning their career 1/1/2011 or later) is:
Add last 4 years salary.
Divide by 4.
multiply by .75.
So to make public education funding in Illinois more equitable, legislators attempted to re-allocate General State Aid in SB 16 (98th General Assembly), which failed.
But during that debate there was little to no conversation about pensions, and the fact that property tax richer school districts which would have received a reduction in General State Aid are typically the school districts that benefit from the State making an annual pension contribution ON BEHALF OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Because higher salaries mean higher pensions.
To prevent state contributions to the state pension funds from overwhelming the state budget, state legislators passed a pension reform bill, which is being challenged in the Illinois Supreme Court right now.
The pension law being challenged is Public Act 98-0599 (Senate Bill 1).
The law has not been put into effect while it is being challenged.
The point is, pension contributions are part of education funding.
And pension contributions have been hiked by hiking salaries at the local level and pension benefits at the state level.
Any conversation of public eduction funding should include annual pension contributions by school districts and the state.
Otherwise the amount of money spent on public education is artificially low.
The latest Early Retirement Option (ERO) renewal was Senate Bill 1366 (SB 1366) in the 98th General Assembly, which Governor Pat Quinn signed into Public Act 98-0042 (PA 98-0042).
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?GAID=12&GA=98&DocNum=1366&DocTypeID=SB&SessionID=85&LegID=71900&SpecSess=&Session=
Senator Pam Althoff was a sponsor of SB 1366.
SB 1366 is set to expire on July 1, 2016.
The purported reason to renew ERO was to improve it.
If not renewed, the ERO option would have expired.
There would be no more ERO.
ERO is just various gimmicks and loopholes to allow teachers to retire earlier.
Without ERO, teachers and administrators can still retire, thanks to other gimmicks and loopholes (such as exchanging unused sick leave, etc.) after 33 years worked with full benefits.
How did McHenry County legislators vote on SB 1366?
Senate Concurrence vote, May 31, 2013.
Senator Althoff (R-32nd) – Yea.
Senator Duffy (R-26th) – Yea.
Senator Karen McConnaughay (R-33rd) – Yea.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/98/senate/09800SB1366_05312013_016000C.pdf
House vote, May 30, 2013.
Representative Jack Franks (D-63rd) – No vote.
Representative McSweeney (R-52nd) – Yea.
Representative Tryon (R-66th) – Yea.
Representative Wheeler (R-64th) – Yea.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/98/house/09800SB1366_05302013_006000T.pdf