McHenry County Blog

Larry Snow

A Columbus Day obituary announced the death of former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow. He died October 4 in his home.

A resident of Lake in the Hills, Snow entered the public consciousness when he discovered that the Huntley School officials were not being straight with voters over a tax increase referendum.

At his own expense, he mailed out a multi-page analysis of the tax hike proposal, which passed despite his opposition.

Then, he decided to run for the District 158 School Board, where he won a seat.

Snow was known for asking tough questions as he tried to bring accountability and transparency to District 158 affairs.

Snow spent considerable time and effort in Springfield figuring out how to rectify the false advertising contained in the tax hike referendum language he fought prior to his election.  He calculated would motivate various state legislators and did so, even when it resulted in political harm to his personal ambitions.

He negotiated the guts of the non-certified employee contract, which was accomplished without conflict.

When a Board vacancy occurred, Snow’s persuasive talents managed to convince his fellow board members (political adversaries, many votes were 6-1 or 5-2) to appoint his Political Action Committee Treasurer Tony Quagliano to the seat.  Quagliano later joined the Board majority and was named its Vice President.

Snow put on a full-court press to elect two allies, Aileen Seedorf and Linda Moore, during the next election.  Seedorf, a community activist who often spoke at school board meetings, was elected, while Moore lost by just two handfuls of votes. In the process School Board President Mike Skala lost to one of his running mates.  The running mate resigned about six months later and the Board appointed Skala to the vacancy.

In the only instance of which I am aware locally, the proposed teachers’ contract was made public before ratification by the school board and the teachers’ union.  [That seems quite important to me, since teacher salaries and benefits account for most of schools' budgets.]  Snow initiated that effort.

Snow was disappointed that enough members of the board reneged on the salary offer after reaching agreement that annual increases should be set at the level of inflation (increase in the CPL).  Instead, increases were set at 5%, plus the level of inflation, if my memory serves me correctly.

Two years later, Skala challenged Snow in a one-on-one race and defeated his re-election effort.  The campaign was as intense as one for state representative and the teachers union and their allies turned the election into a blood sport.  $8,500 was spent on Skala’s campaign.

After his loss, Snow wrote a book on what he thought was needed to improve education in the United States and articles for online “The Champion.”

One article in which put extensive effort involving the examination of scores of teacher contracts from the largest school districts in Illinois.  He sought to discover if teachers or taxpayers were paying the share teachers were statutorily required to pay. The results are summarized in the title of my article on his research:

39% of Illinois Teachers Pay Nothing for Pensions

He also looked at schools with poor test results and found out if teachers or taxpayers were making the Teacher Retirement System payments.  You can find it here.

Snow was a patient at Sherman Hospital this summer where he had an operation to relieve pressure in his head.

Upon release, his older sister Elizabeth Sniegoski came to stay with him.

He then re-wrote the introductory chapter of his book.  He was talking about one of his daughter’s father-in-law arranging to publish it online, but I do not know if that has been accomplished.  If he did, I am sure Snow would be pleased.

When I last had lunch with him at Colonial Cafe in Algonquin, he explained how he, as a very junior employee with Schering Plough he had come up with the suggestion of a new class drug, rather than trying to fit it into an existing class.

Larry Snow

Going back farther in time, he told me of realizing the way he was being taught algebra in his Catholic boys school was not working.  He went to the Harvard Book Store and searched until he could find a book he could understand.  Snow went on to get a chemical engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Snow was a successful software salesman. although he detested my use of the word “salesman” to describe what I thought he explained he did.

He told me of some of his presentations for Green Hills Software, a position he resigned in order to have more flexibility to take his daughters to tennis matches around the country.

He was quite disappointed that he did not get to attend his daughter’s recent wedding.

He had three daughters–Stacy Peters, Trina Geatz and Kerry Snow–and a granddaughter named Caroline Peters.   Besides his sister, he has a brother, Vincent Snow, who survives him.

Once, I saw a card on display that one of his daughter ‘s wrote to him which said, “Dad, you were always there for me.”

He was so proud of their accomplishments.

Snow was 61 when he died.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady traveled up the Fox River Valley to talk to McHenry County Republicans Wednesday night.

Pat Brady is seen addressing McHenry County Republicans at the Nunda Township GOP meeting.

The event was held at the Prairie Isle Golf Club in Prairie Grove.

A good number of countywide elected officials were in attendance.

Sheriff Keith Nygren enjoyed a good laugh with Pat Brady.

Here you see Pat Brady posing with Nunda Township Republican Party Chairman Brent Smith, McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew and Dan Regna, who ran against McHenry County State's Attorney Lou Bianchi in 2008.

Not only candidates for countywide office, but those for the McHenry County Board were courting voters. Nick Provenzano was there, but I don’t think he’d want me to post the photo I have for this event.

McHenry County State's Attorney Lou Bianchi, an announced candidate for re-election is seen in this shot with District 3 County Board candidate Lyn Orphal. Orphal was beated for her District 2 seat by Donna Kurtz in 2010.

8th District Congressman Joe Walsh represented the national scene.

Congressman Joe Walsh spoke to the group. He is having a Town Hall Meeting at the Woodstock VFW tomorrow night at 7.

State legislators and candidates were in attendance.

McHenry County Board member Barb Wheeler was talking up her candidacy to Bob Cook.

Kent Gaffney addresses the crowd.

State Senator Dan Duffy was caught with County Board candidate Jim Schlader.

McHenry County Republican Party Chairman Mike Tryon was present, as was McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.

Mike Tryon and Ken Koehler converse with those present. Undersheriff Andrew Zinke can be seen in the background to the left to Pat Brady.

Steven Rooney, recently elected to the Johnsburg School Board, was present.

Johnsburg School Board member Steve Rooney poses with State's Attorney Lou Bianchi.

There was even a past school board member sighted.

State Senator Dan Duffy chatted with former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow.

The turnout was more than respectable.

Part of the crowd who attended the Nunda Township Republican event.

I’m fortunate to have had a couple of people taking pictures for me, but good coverage of an event really requires feet on the ground. For instance, I’d love to knows what the politicians are laughing about in the photo below:

Anyone know what this "almost falling of the chair" joke was?

There was a gathering of Chairmen at the meeting.  Not only was State Party Chairman Pat Brady present, but McHenry County Chairman Mike Tryon, Lake County Chairman Bob Cook and the host, Nunda Township Chairman Brent Smith.

GOP Chairman Brent Smith (Nuida Township), Pat Brady (Illinois), Mike Tryon (McHenry County) and Bob Cook (Lake County).

As I go through the second set of photos, I see one with Crystal Laker Rich Evans, who has announced his candidacy for Congress in Joe Walsh’s 8th District. There is no indication that Walsh is running for re-election there.

Rich Evans appeals to Nunda Township Republicans.

The Northwest Herald usually doesn’t send reporters to political events, but newcomer Jane Huh covered the event.

Northwest Herald reporter Jane Huh interviews State Senator Dan Duffy.

Larry Snow

“While Democrats say Teachers ‘Have Kept Their Part of the Deal?’“

is the title of an April 5, 2011, article by former Huntley School District 158 Board member Larry Snow.  (The quote was in the Chicago Tribune Marcy 31, 2011.  It is from Executive Director Dick Ingram of Teachers’ Retirement System.)

The article was published in “The Champion” with this teaser:

“82,981 of 132,502 Illinois Teachers Pay Nothing or Little into Their Pensions“

That’s 63% of all teachers in Illinois.

The State Journal-Register is reporting that State Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Orland Park) is promoting a bill where state and local governments would all pay six percent of payroll toward employee pensions.

In a revealing sentence in reporter Chris Wetterich’s article, he writes,

“What’s unclear is how much more employees themselves would have to pay.“

Because no one has done the research except, I believe, the Illinois Education Association and Snow, how much extra teachers would have to pay if their so-called contribution rate was raised from 9.4% to 13.77% is a really good question.

While not covering every school district in Illinois, Snow did research the teachers’ contracts for all of the large school districts (by law all are supposed to be on the internet) in order to find out how much teachers pay in order to get a “full 75 percent pension after working only 27 years.” He points out, “Most adults work for 27 years before they turn age 50.”

As way of background, Snow notes that teachers are not in the Social Security System and, therefore, are not forced to pay Social Security taxes.

“Ordinary workers get hit with a 6.2 percent deduction for Social Security,” Snow writes. “It’s a deduction they have to pay federal and state income taxes on.

“Democrats gave teachers a huge loophole of not paying income taxes on any of their pension deductions” he continues. “This enormous no-tax handout to teachers amounts to billions of dollars each year.”

Snow’s research leads him to this conclusion:

“Over 51,000 of the total 132,502 teachers in Illinois contribute nothing from their K-12 paychecks into their pensions. Illinois law says it is to be 9.4 percent.

“About an additional 32,000 teachers pay little into their pensions. It is 1.81 percent to be precise for these 31,956 teachers.“

How many teachers pay not a dime toward their retirement?

51,025 teachers in 186 school districts pay nothing for retirement benefits.

They “don’t pay a penny into the 9.4 percent called out by Illinois law.

“There are a total of 868 districts in Illinois.

“The pay-zero teachers listed are 39 percent of all teachers in Illinois,” Snow reveals.

No agency in state government seems to keep track of this information.

Not the Downstate Teachers Retirement Fund, which boldly and incorrectly claims,

“Active TRS members are required to contribute 9.4 percent of their creditable earnings each year…”

The State Board of Education doesn’t keep track either.

My guess is that only the Illinois Education Association has a matrix showing what school districts have given what benefits in contract negotiations.

Snow discovered this about Lockport:

“…on page 14 of the Lockport Township HS 205 teachers contract it reads:

1. The Board will pay the current level of retirement contribution to the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois.”
2. It is expressly understood that figures appearing on this salary schedule include a sum equal to the current level of TRS contribution of the base salary of each Teacher which is, in fact, payable to the Teachers’ Retirement System on the Teacher’s behalf.”

“The ISBE report shows this board paying nothing. A Democrat bureaucracy doesn’t check the teachers contracts to see if what is reported, matches what’s in writing.”

And, if legislation is passed requiring 4.37 percentage points more, how long do you think it will take Lockport taxpayers to pick up the difference?

Given that local teachers’ unions pretty much control school boards wherever they are elected (read everywhere but Chicago), my guess is will be on the top of the collective bargaining list.

Do you wonder if Rep. McCarthy knows that?

Is his proposal just a setting up local taxpayers for an even bigger fall?

Five years from now will 39% of teachers still be paying nothing for their pensions?

Even better for teachers is that this pension payment ups their pension payments.

Take a look at the chart below.  Chances are your school district is on it.

Chart of Pension Contributions by 82,981 District Teachers of 132,502 Total Illinois K-12 Teachers

Name of District	No. of Teachers	Percent of Pension Contributed by Teachers
Thornton Twp 205	428	Zero
Proviso 209	281	Zero
Waukegan 60	1,098	Zero
Morton 201	455	Zero
Kankakee 111	348	Zero
Joliet 204	340	Zero
Round Lake 116	387	Zero
Rockford	1,843	Zero
Decatur 61	454	Zero
Crete Monee	340	Zero
Danville 118	382	Zero
Valley View 365	1,068	Zero
Aurora West 129	706	Zero
East Peoria 309	69	Zero
Galesburg	281	Zero
Bremen 228	313	Zero
Freeport	317	Zero
Leyden 212	219	Zero
Elgin U-46	2,332	Zero
Rock Island	388	Zero
Mattoon	225	Zero
Collinsville	394	Zero
Massac 1	143	Zero
Sterling	219	Zero
Belvidere	531	Zero
Quincy	436	Zero
Dixon	179	Zero
West Chicago	248	Zero
Cook County 130	289	Zero
Cicero 99	738	Zero
Joliet 86	617	Zero
Harvey 152	163	Zero
Crystal Lake 155	412	Zero
Crystal Lake 47	564	Zero
Wheeling 21	489	Zero
Champaign 4	717	Zero
United CUSD 304	68	Zero
Riverdale 100	76	Zero
Reed Custer 255	114	Zero
Wilmington 209U	84	Zero
United Township 30	90	Zero
Summit Hill 161	213	Zero
Plainfield	1,695	Zero
Schiller Park 81	98	Zero
Dolton 149	176	Zero
Township 211 Palatine	799	Zero
Ball Chatham 5	248	Zero
Taylorville 3	152	Zero
Williamsville 15	81	Zero
Harrisburg 3	130	Zero
Belleville 201	281	Zero
Dupo 196	76	Zero
O’Fallon 203	145	Zero
O’Fallon 90	207	Zero
Rochester 3A	142	Zero
Pekin 108	248	Zero
Morton 709	175	Zero
New Lenox 122	287	Zero
Frankfort 157	158	Zero
Marion 2	219	Zero
Carterville 5	110	Zero
Kinnikinnick 131	122	Zero
Tolono 7	116	Zero
Mahomet-Seymour 3	161	Zero
Champaign 4	717	Zero
Urbana	346	Zero
Charleston 1	180	Zero
Park Ridge 64	319	Zero
Evanston 202	222	Zero
Maine HSD 207	508	Zero
Arlington Heights 214	753	Zero
Niles 219	350	Zero
Berkeley 87	165	Zero
Berwyn South	263	Zero
Lyons 204	239	Zero
Lemont 113	144	Zero
Palatine 15	713	Zero
Schaumburg 54	1,003	Zero
Oak Lawn 123	203	Zero
Oak Lawn 229	114	Zero
CHSD 230 Orland Park	519	Zero
Argo 217	111	Zero
Homewood 233	174	Zero
Genoa 424	137	Zero
Sycamore 427	231	Zero
Dekalb 428	362	Zero
Lombard 44	216	Zero
Downers Grove 58	277	Zero
Hinsdale 86	296	Zero
Elmhurst 205	538	Zero
Naperville 203	1,063	Zero
Effingham 40	176	Zero
Canton Union 66	175	Zero
Morris 54	61	Zero
Morris 101	50	Zero
Coal City 1	138	Zero
Jersey 100	164	Zero
Central CUSD 301	224	Zero
Kaneland 302	275	Zero
St. Charles 303	880	Zero
Cahokia	298	0.4
Chicago Public Schools	23,219	2
Peoria 150	988	0.4
Springfield	1,105	0.4
Moline 40	461	0.4
Harvard	149	0.87
Dolton 148	236	1.4
Belleville 118	228	0.4
Pekin 303	125	0.4
Hononegah 207	118	0.4
Arlington Heights 59	444	3
Leyden 212	219	0.4
Summit 104	103	0.4
Palos 118	130	0.4
CHSD 219 Orland Park	519	0.4
Bensenville 2	145	1.4
DuPage 88	266	0.4
CHSD 94	122	0.9
CUSD 300	1,189	4.4
Hawthorn 73	253	1.4
Lake Forest 115	132	0.4
Wauconda 118	273	0.4
Johnsburg 12	158	0.4
Cary 26	192	4.9
Woodstock 200	385	1.4
Keeneyville 20	107	0.4
Winnebago 323	117	0.4
LaSalle-Peru Twp. 120	88	0.7
Prairie-Hills 144	187	0.4
Geneva 304	367	Zero
Herscher 2	126	Zero
Manteno 5	160	Zero
Bourbonnais 53	160	Zero
Bradley 61	103	Zero
Bradley Bourbonnais 307	114	Zero
Momence 1	88	Zero
Yorkville 115	329	Zero
Plano 88	154	Zero
Oswego 308	827	Zero
Streator 44	132	Zero
Ottawa 141	140	Zero
Ottawa 140	102	Zero
Glenview 34	343	Zero
Zion 6	177	Zero
Grayslake 46	266	Zero
Elmwood Park 401	181	Zero
Libertyville 70	159	Zero
North Shore 112	374	Zero
HSD 113 Highland Park	249	Zero
Grant 124	91	Zero
Zion-Benton 126	156	Zero
Evanston 65	547	Zero
Grayslake 127	187	Zero
Meridian 15	64	Zero
Mt. Zion 3	133	Zero
Edwardsville 7	480	Zero
Alton 11	467	Zero
Macomb 185	130	Zero
McHenry 15	282	Zero
McHenry 156	158	Zero
Nippersink 2	92	Zero
Columbia 4	111	Zero
Waterloo 5	166	Zero
Hillsboro 3	114	Zero
Meridian 223	113	Zero
Illinois Valley Central 321	139	Zero
Carbondale 165	76	Zero
Carbondale 95	105	Zero
Riverton 14	85	Zero
Auburn 10	90	Zero
Pawnee 11	47	Zero
Panhandle 2	35	Zero
Sullivan 300	75	Zero
Centralia 135	93	Zero
Litchfield 12	83	Zero
Harlem 122	505	Zero
Granite City 9	617	Zero
Princeton 115	86	Zero
Princeton 500	43	Zero
Bond County 2	120	Zero
Duquoin CUSD 300	101	Zero
Rocton 140	102	Zero
Rochelle Twp. HSD 212	71	Zero
Rochelle CCSD 231	131	Zero
Byron 226	127	Zero
Oregon 220	104	Zero
Farmington Central 265	85	Zero
Porta 202	75	Zero
River Bend 2	71	Zero
Red Bud 132	73	Zero
Sparta 140	105	Zero
Southwestern 9	107	Zero
Staunton 6	87	Zero
Gillespie 7	81	Zero
Hamilton County 10	83	Zero
Midwest Central 191	85	Zero
Tuscola 301	86	Zero
West Carroll 314	99	Zero
Oakwood 76	64	Zero
Hoopeston 11	94	Zero
Westville 2	80	Zero
Beardstown 15	98	Zero
El Paso-Gridley 11	99	Zero
Murphysboro 186	137	Zero
Monticello 25	111	Zero
Paris-Union 95	74	Zero
Mt. Vernon Twp. 210	80	Zero
Mt. Vernon 80	109	Zero
Jasper County 1	101	Zero
Steger 194	128	Zero
Calumet City 155	77	Zero
North Boone 200	116	Zero
CCSD 93 Carol Stream	294	Zero
East Maine SD 63	254	Zero
Lockport Township HS 205	205	Zero
Above Teachers Total	82,981

These comments by Huntley School District Superintendent John Burkey in the First Electric Newspaper stirred my memory:

Supt. John Burkey tells union leaders that ratification will be delayed.

“Last year I was amazed that we avoided it,” said Supt. John Burkey.

“This year it just caught up with us.”

He slammed a three-year union contract now ending that he said included a more than 5 percent raise this year “while everyone else only got 1.7 percent.”

So I asked a participant with a long memory, a member of the board negotiating team in fact, Larry Snow, what he remember about how contract negotiations went before and during the Huntley Education Association’s strike.

Here is his reply:

Larry Snow

“The 158 board voted on a last, best and final offer that had teachers’ salaries for years 2 and 3 determined by a cost of living increase formula.

“With Supt. John Burkey’s nod of approval, board members Tony Quagliano, Kevin Gentry and Kim Skaja voted to reverse the board’s vote, as Board President Shawn Green literally was a no-show at the final negotiation meetings.

“This made it a 3 – 2 vote in caucus to toss aside a decision to have teachers’ salaries in years 2 and 3 track a cost of living index.

“The union didn’t care that overspending might cause future deficits and cause teachers to be laid off in the future.

“Huntley teachers should only look to their own union officials for striking, now causing deficits and teacher layoffs.

“Teacher greed means teachers who aren’t tenured are the ones that are laid off and they are not a union vote majority.”

Want some history?

Here it is:

• Part 1 – Huntley Teachers’ Proposal: From Surplus to Deficit
• Part 2 – Huntley Teachers’ Proposal: From Surplus to Deficit
• Part 3 – Huntley Teachers’ Proposal: From Surplus to Deficit

Larry Snow

In his Champion News.net column today former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow throws a spotlight on how public pensions can have million dollar payouts.

“It takes little math skills to figure out it takes more than a million dollars to buy a $75,000 payment every year for the rest of your life at age 60,” he writes. “

“If you prefer an online calculator there’s one at www.immediateannuities.com. It shows you need about $1.2 million if you are a 60 year old female living in Illinois.”

Yet, he notes, Democrats love to denigrate millionaires.

Snow notes that teacher pensions increase 3% a year. He doesn’t note that other public employee pensions, including mine, get the same annual bump.

Snow accurately notes that the 3% compounds every year.

Then he returns to the theme of previous columns:

“Teachers in Illinois contribute far less into their pensions than regular workers do into Social Security. Democrats also call this ‘fair.’”

Yesterday, he showed “how two-thirds of all teachers in the bottom-half-performing school districts pay zero to little into their pensions.”

He asks,

“How is it ‘fair’ for Illinois teachers to contribute into their pensions less than retail workers and construction workers have to pay into Social Security, but get pensions that are many times higher?”

Another anomaly that Snow points to is the ability to educators to qualify for a pension in a state other than Illinois and, then, to come to work in Illinois, where they qualify for a second public pension.

Larry Snow

Former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow has done a prodigious amount of research about school districts where teachers pay nothing for their pensions.

Those employed in the private sector pay into Social Security. But they also pay the entire cost of teachers’ pensions in many, many Illinois school districts.

Snow asks the following question:

“How loud would teachers howl if
they had to pay for other peoples’ Social Security?” (emphasis in the original)

Entitled,

“Illinois is Proof “Investing in Education” is Democrat Lipstick on Legalized Looting,”

Snow’s piece is published in The Champion today.

The guts of his column is summarized below:

“Two thirds of all of the teachers in the worst and poorly performing school districts either don’t pay a penny, or pay very little for their pensions…

“This pattern of abuse by teachers and union officials in the worst school districts is clear.

“The chart shows how a third of all teachers in Illinois, all in the bottom half of lousy to poorly performing districts, pay next to nothing or literally zero for their luxury-benefit pensions.”

A major goal of teacher union collective bargaining is to shift the required employee payment from teachers' pockets to those of the taxpaying public.

His thesis is “teachers unions systematically drain education resources.”

He points to “work rules” as “a polite way of depicting work tourniquets. They are designed to limit the normal flow of instruction to students.”

Then, he moves on to health insurance premiums, challenging readers to

“Try finding a teachers contract in Illinois where the teacher is paying 15% of his or her own individual health care premium.”

He returns to pensions, pointing out,

“Illinois School Code says teachers are to pay 9.4 % of their salary into the state’s pension. The chart below shows what is actually happening. And this is just among the bottom half of school districts.”

Pension Contributions by Teachers in Some Bottom-Half-Performing School Districts

Snow adds this local tidbit:

“Crystal Lake is served by two, above-average-performing districts, 155 and 47 with about a thousand (976) teachers. None contribute a penny for their pensions.

“You can add more districts such as this one to easily count over a third of all teachers in Illinois paying little to nothing.”

That’s pretty much the question that former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow asks in a a column posted on The Champion today.

“…in Illinois teachers are informing parents how their children are passing in reading when they can read as poorly as those at the bottom 20th percentile nationally.”

Snow finds no outcry about this false impression that everything’s OK in Illinois schools.

“Illinois teachers as an overall group simply don’t want the public to expect their child in the 5th grade to be reading at the fifth grade level” he adds. “Making the ISAT pass grade be at 20 percent nationally had no opposition from former union teachers, now administrators.”

He works in teacher workload, salaries and benefits as he spotlights Chicago, Elgin, Rockford and Lemont (87% white) School Districts.

From the Rockford School Distric't web site.

“In three of the worst and largest school districts in Illinois, teachers in Elgin U-46 and Rockford don’t pay a penny while those in Chicago pay 2 percent. That’s also without having to pay a penny into Social Security,” he observes.

“On Rockford’s home page the district boasts ‘Rockford World-Class Education.’

“You are supposed to accept an average ACT score of 18.4 is ‘world class’ along with more than 37 percent of all students reading below, low (20th percentile nationally) state standards.”

Snow notes that in Rockford “more than 70 percent of its 1,843 teachers having Masters Degrees. What have they ‘mastered’ about teaching when their students are learning so little?

“The standards for learning ‘teaching’ are far too low when on-the-job, real-world results from those who have ‘mastered’ teaching are abysmal.”

And Elgin?

“Elgin U-46 has 23 percent of its 7th graders reading at, or below, low (20th percentile nationally) state standards, when 67.7 percent of its 2,332 teachers have Masters Degrees, and all teachers are being paid salaries averaging over $70,000. Half of its students ‘achieve’ an ACT score of 19.6 and less.”

Snow concludes that collective bargaining is to blame:

“Public unions insist they have a ‘right’ to collectively bargain for low standards in education and make taxpayers overpay for poor teacher performance.

“Now they are calling it a civil right.

“The high percentage of Masters Degree teachers in the worst and largest school districts shows how harmful collective bargaining is to helping students actually learn.”

You can read the entire piece here.

Is that in your employer’s retirement package?

Or do you get a cake at the office and your friends get a little time to wish you well, plus whatever is in your 40l(k)?

The “post-retirement lump sum payment of $20,000” appears on page 27 of the 2008-2011 Cary teachers union contract, a result of public employee collective bargaining.

Take a look:

The language in the contract between the Cary School Board and the Cary Education Association.

"Don't sell out children," the Madison sign says.

Collective bargaining is what the fight is about in Madison, Wisconsin.

Take another look at the specific language that the financially-strapped Cary Grade School District 26 School Board negotiated with the Cary Education Association:

2. A post-retirement lump sum payment of $20,000 to be paid after the certified staffmember’s last day of creditable service and after the last paycheck for regular earnings (after July 1st of retirement year) as a non-elective employer paid contribution into a post-retirement tax sheltered 403(b) annuity.

Former Huntley School Board member Larry Snow is writing for The Champion and his latest column, entitled,

“Federal Union Employees Don’t Have Collective Bargaining for Wages or Benefits”

cites some local results of collective bargaining for teachers.

He has other examples in the contract which might be a bit more lucrative than your own workplace experience would offer.

Snow also finds an interesting retirement benefit for Barrington School teachers. It’s on page 45 of the 2009-2012 contract.

Barrington teachers get a retirement bonus of $1,200 for every year they taught.

That “service recognition benefit” maxes out at $39,600 upon retirement.

Larry Snow

Larry Snow is a numbers guy.

He has looked at the administrative costs of Obamacare and figured out that it amounts to $1,000 per household.

$115 billion in administrative costs.

115 million families in the USA.

The division is pretty easy.

To put it in perspective, he explains,

“You could pay off $100,000 of mortgage debt on over a million homes (1,150,000) with 115 billion dollars.

“If the mortgage payments were less than $30,000 per year (picking an example dollar amount) 115 billion dollars is more than enough to have stopped all of the two million home foreclosures since our teleprompter-in-chief took office.”

He suggests that for most taxpayer families the forced contribution will be more than $1,000.

= = = = =
I have been informed this payment is for ten year of administrative costs.

Larry Snow

I don’t cover national politics much unless it drills down to McHenry County.

Now we have a local connection in columnist Larry Snow, who opines today on The Champion about how to pull the country out of the recession.

How do we get jobs created and the economy growing again?

That’s the question Snow addresses.

I won’t give it away. You’ll have to read his thoughts.

The first two paragraphs may capture your interest. I know it did mine.

Maybe Congressman Don Manzullo or newly-elected Congressman Joe Walsh will take the idea and run with it.

It certainly takes away Democrats’ argument of blaming the economy and not being able to do anything about it that doesn’t run up our debt.

Here are the first few paragraphs:

“There’s a practical way to quickly rev up the U.S. economy that will put money into consumers’ pockets and lower business costs. It will also help all European economies without costing China a dime.

“It even has a side peace dividend by making it more difficult for Iran to fund terrorism or buy missiles from North Korea. It lets President Obama and Hillary Clinton use their popularity, negotiating skills and relationships with world leaders. As lawyers they can appreciate how the solution is deeply rooted in American law.”

See if you can find a downside to why the national Republican Party or its potential candidates should embrace the idea.

Is Snow laying out a practical solution you haven’t heard before?

People have learned they don’t have to depend on newspapers or the main stream media for ideas or even information.

In fact, Joe Walsh was elected to the U.S. Congress because of his majority in McHenry County and in spite of the dominant Northwest Herald’s saying not very nice things about him.

You could say that the paper’s influence in re-electing Melissa Bean was shown to be irrelevant.

Undoubtedly for the next two years its coverage will have a continuing negative slant so NWH favorite Jack Franks can be poised to knock him out of office.

The majority of McHenry County voted for common sense when it came to the choice between Walsh and Melissa Bean.

The article does suggest al way to rev up our economy and grow jobs without running up our nation’s debt. That might be especially relevant seeing how unemployment ratcheted up to 9.8 percent and now sits at a seven-month high.