Just three weeks ago, she was demanding a state taxpayer bailout of her city’s nearly bankrupt pension funds. The problem was so big, she said, she’d risk her “re-election” over it. Eventually, Gov. J.B. Pritzker denied her bailout request for obvious reasons – the state is just one notch from a junk rating.

Now news reports confirm that Lightfoot has offered the Chicago Teachers’ Union a five-year contract that will cost taxpayers another $325 million. That includes guaranteed raises of more than 14 percent over the life of the contract. And that, of course, turns into more pension benefits and an even bigger pension hole for CPS.

That’s an expensive gift for a city that Lightfoot claims is in need of a multi-billion dollar bailout.

That about-face should infuriate every downstate Illinoisan. If the bailout had gone through, here’s what all Illinoisans would have been paying for:

1. Chicago teachers are already highest paid vs. teachers in similar districts.
Chicago teachers are the nation’s highest paid when compared to the largest school districts with traditional salary schedules, according to data from the National Center on Teacher Quality.

For example, a Chicago teacher with a master’s degree receives $80,000 a year after ten years of work. In contrast, an equivalent teacher in New York City makes $70,000 and a Los Angeles teacher makes $60,000.

2. The average career Chicago teacher will get $2 million in total pension benefits, far more than ordinary Illinoisans.
High salaries translate into big pension benefits for career teachers. The average CPS teacher who retired in 2018 with 30-34 years of service had a final average salary of nearly $98,000 and a starting pension of over $70,000. Their average retirement age was 61.

That pension will increase automatically by 3 percent each year and by year 25 of retirement, the pension will be double its starting amount. In all, the average retired career Chicago teacher will collect over $2.1 million in benefits over the course of her retirement.

In contrast, an ordinary Illinoisan at retirement would need to have around $1.5 million in his or her account at retirement to collect the same amount of benefits as a career Chicago teacher. Most Illinoisans will never save that amount of money.

3. Taxpayers still “pick up” a majority of Chicago teacher pension contributions.
Not only do Chicago teachers receive millions in pension benefits, they contribute almost nothing towards them over the course of their careers.

Chicago teachers are supposed to contribute 9 percent of their salary every year towards their pensions. But every year since 1981, CPS has paid for, or “picked up” 7 of that 9 percent.

That means Chicago teachers only have to pay 2 percent of their salary towards their own pensions every year. That costs Chicagoans over $100 million a year.

Rahm tried to reform pickups in 2016, but he was rebuffed by the union. Only new workers lost the pickup. And even then, the district gave out extra 3.5 percent raises in exchange.