McHenry County Blog

On Friday, October 19th, right before the election, Governor Pat Quinn took Amtrak on a 15-mile trip.

From Dwight to Pontiac, I think.

The train went 111 miles per hour.

Governor Pat Quinn got a publicity pop a month ago going faster than a car on a very small part of the trip from Chicago to Springfield.

The problem is that a car can still drive from the Chicago area to Springfield faster than the train.

And the Governor can fly in one of the State’s fleet of planes, just like the influential Chicago legislators.

They won’t take the train.

During the 1970′s when I had a lot of time, I often took the train from Crystal Lake to Chicago and from Chicago to Springfield and back.

But it didn’t save me time. Didn’t save me money either, because the State reimbursed the cost of the train ticket.

The train looking like a bullet train, but it’s maximum speed was only 69 miles per hour, just like now on most of the route.

I’d look out the window and see cars passing the train.

After a stop in Joliet and Dwight and Pontiac and Normal and Lincoln, I’d see the same cars and trucks passing us again.

It’s going to be a long time–probably never–when someone from the Northwest, Western or Southwester suburbs is tempted into Amtrak to go to Springfield.

Except to the train riding experience maybe.

And, I’m bold enough to suggest that there are not a lot of regular travelers from Downtown Chicago to Downtown St. Louis.

Hey. It only is going to cost $4 billion.

That would build a lot of roads.

Instead of going to Chicago to view massive demonstration gathered around world politicians, our family went to Springfield, a place where state politicians had deserted while leader staffers crafted legislation to be presented on a take it or leave it basis during the next two weeks.

The draw was the Old Capitol Art Fair.

But what did I spot on sidewalks around the Old State Capitol?

Take a look.

An anarchist symbol was chalked on the sidewalk at the Old Capitol Art Fair.

Not that the economy driven by taxpayer-supported state government cared.

A Friend of McHenry County Blog sent the following paragraph from Forbes:

“The fourth most dangerous city as ranked by our list is Springfield, Ill., a metro area of 200,000 four hours south of Chicago where the FBI reports 855 violent crimes and 70 rapes each year per 100,000 citizens.

“Despite its dangerous ranking, the state of Illinois has made great strides to respond to violent crimes against women; Illinois currently has more than 33 24-hour rape crisis centers and in 1992 was one of the first states to include rights for victims of violent crime in its state constitution.”

I doubt the danger to woman has anything to do with the politically charged atmosphere of the State Capital, but there is not doubt that there is a sexual aspect to this and undoubtedly other political arenas.

A view of the Illinois Capitol rail on the third floor where the legislative chambers are located.

In the musical “Boss,” based on Mike Royko’s book of the same name, there’s a song about “the girls who keep their jobs with their tails.”

I was told that Illinois Bell used to hire good looking young woman from rural parts of Illinois to fulfill that role.

Such assignations, of course, would not end up in an FBI data base, if the practice continued.

Neither would the “Springfield wives” of state legislators.

There was widespread talk that one of the ERA supporters changed an attorney-legislator’s vote the night before one of the votes.

And at a post-session party thrown by Governor Jim Thompson at the Executive Mansion, I was approached by a good looking young woman. When I demurred, she asked my if I let my wife (Robin Geist then) run my life. I told her that in matters like this, I did.

I stayed in the cheapest hotel–the Hotel Governor–along with other legislators who were not rolling in dough. It and its former parking lot is now the location of the Illinois Wine Tasting event at the Old Capitol Art Fair each May.

The walls were not that thick and some political types used it for affairs.

Then, there was the lobbyist who tried to pick up one of my constituents who was in the Capitol city for the week lobbying on a matter dear to her heart.

When he handed her his hotel key, she dropped it over the rail. They were on the third floor.

This is as good a place as any to put the initiation rite in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Veterans wait until there is a good looking woman sitting in the gallery.

They write a note to the legislator saying the woman would like to get acquainted and inviting him to join her in the gallery.

When the man (maybe it’s used on women, too, now) approaches the woman, someone gains the floor for purposes of an introduction and introduces the State Rep., who gets razzed when he returns red-faced to the chamber.

The hotel on the left was called the Renaissance Hotel in the beginning. It was another urban renewal project spearheaded by Bill Cellini.

When I was staying at the Hotel Governor (now a parking lot where the the Old Capitol Art Fair Wine Tasting is held), the cheapest place in the Illinois State Capitol to rent a room, there was a row of apartment buildings across the street.

Cheapskates besides me who stayed there included

• State Senator Prescott Bloom, who gave his life trying to save both of his children when his Peoria home burned,  and
• State Rep. Lew Caldwell, an independent black Chicago Democrat with a Northwestern University Social Work Master’s Degree, who authored “The Policy King.”

It was also used as a place at least one State Senator rented to have a one night stand. The noise on the other side of the wall kept me awake a bit longer than I normally would have been.

I remember one of buildings across the street had a bar on the first floor where I sometimes bought popcorn.

Above the street level establishments were reputed to be ladies of ill repute. I was told that was where the “Springfield wife” (that’s what the girl friends were called) of a pious Northern Illinois lived. Right across from the infamous St. Nicholas Hotel (where Secretary of State Paul Powell of cash in shoe box fame stayed).

In any event, when Bill Cellini’s company bought up the property and put in what I thought was a totally senior citizens housing development, it was considered quite an improvement for Downtown Springfield.

Much as the construction of the hotel built by Cellini’s investment group with state help engineered by Governor Jim Thompson and Treasurer Jerry Cosentino was praised because they replaced Springfield’s skid row.

Now with Cellini’s having been convicted of assorted politically-connected nastiness’s, any politician with a Cellini connection seems fair game for the media.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a photo of Bill Celinni's urban renewal project, which is called Neart North Village.

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford is living in an apartment there at state expense. (Apparently, the building houses more than senior apartments.)

And Cellini family members and family-owned firms own the building.

$1,600 a month rent for a Springfield residence that Rutherford, as a state official, is required to maintain.  (George Ryan had a duplex when he was Secretary of State).

Draw your own conclusion as to the propriety.

On other matters, remember that Rutherford is head of the Mitt Romney campaign for the second time around.

Remember that Romney was not at all pleased that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuted, let alone convicted Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s guy.

Is anyone but me sure that Fitzgerald will not be reappointed if Romney is elected?

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has announced that the verdict in Bill Cellini’s corruption trial will be rendered at noon.

There’s no way that someone just reading the newspapers can make a prediction of which way it will go.

But,

• since Cellini has a Crystal Lake connection and
• since he supervised my running of the Denny Kelley for Mayor of Springfield campaign in 1971 and
• since I successfully fought his attempt to have the state buy the Springfield Concordia Lutheran Seminary during the 1970′s and
• since he’s a friendly guy,

I’m going to make a couple of comments.

The Hotel Expresso in Montreal has a curved Bill Cellini curtain rod.

Every time we go on vacation I am reminded of Bill Cellini.  Not because of anything I have mentioned above, but because of a marvelous invention he put in the state-subsidized hotel he built in Springfield.

It’s the curved shower curtain.

I am certain that his patented idea has been ripped off by others, but in every hotel bathroom, I look to see if Cellini’s curtain rod is installed.  My wife can’t understand why I continue taking photos of showers.

I guess it’s just a tribute to an imaginative guy.

When I was working on the 1971 mayoral campaign in Springfield, I had just finished serving four years as McHenry County Treasurer and a month and a half working for the House Republican Appropriations Committee staff.  I, along with all the other staff had been fired by newly-elected House Speaker Bob Blair.  There were exceptions for the Legislative Research Council’s interns (which received a verbal firing, even though they were not on the Speaker’s payroll) and a mistress or two.

Cellini, who was Richard Ogilvie’s Secretary of Transportation needed someone to be front man in the Downtown Springfield trade association’s attempt to capture the top job in Springfield city government.  I was offered the job and took it.

It was an experience in Springfield politics.   An education one could not get in a classroom.

The back of the statue of former U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen has an elephant and a donkey arm-in-arm. One has its fingers crossed. Perhaps this might also symbolize Bill Cellini's mode of operation.

The public relations staff at IDOT cut television commercials.  I guess I was surprised that state employees were using state equipment to help out the campaign, but when I went to view the TV ads, it was after hours and I was the outsider.

Franklin Life’s public relations man did the graphics, which, like the commercials, were very good.

I remember how my eyebrows rose when I was asked to go the the owner of Myers Brothers Department Store and take a $5,000 check to the post office.  It was a company check.  Was it going to be deducted by Federal income taxes?  Beats me, but the thought did occur.

No campaign disclosure laws then, of course.

The campaign paid every Republican and Democratic Party Precinct Committeeman $40 to distribute Kelley’s literature.  I discovered all parts of Springfield as I delivered literature that was not picked up.  We ran a poor second in the primary and paid $40 apiece again in the general election, which the front-runner Coroner Bill Telford won by about the same margin that the first Mayor Richard Daley beat Richard Friedman. in 1971

It was during planning meetings of this campaign that I met future U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who was Lt. Gov. Paul Simon’s Senate Parliamentarian.

After the debacle, I returned to Crystal Lake having learned the limitations of the power of precinct committeemen, even when both parties seemingly agreed on a candidate and a lot about machine politics.

Perhaps relevant to the current trial, I learned that Cellini was not adverse to working with Democrats.  And vice versa.

Later that year, I started my campaign for State Representative, which I won.

Some has been made about how Bill managed to arrange for the selling of vacant Springfield property to state government.  Of course, he was able, over time, to have friends placed in key places in the Department of Central Management Services, as I found out later when I worked there for over four years after losing my 1982 campaign for State Comptroller to Roland Burris.

When Cellini tried to gain legislative approval to sell the abandoned Concordia Seminary to state government to house the Illinois Department of Corrections, I opposed the plan.

Bill asked to speak to me out by the Capitol railing.

He asked in that soft manner he has, “Cal, are we having a fight?”

I told him we weren’t but that when his plans would cost my constituents money that I would oppose them.

I won the battle, but lost the war.

State government didn’t purchase the seminary, for which Bill had obtained exclusive marketing rights.

State government rented the property.

Bill probably made more money that way than he would have by having the state buy the land and buildings.

I watched over the years with fascination as a failed department store became a state office building and IDOT bought a helicopter, both transactions with a Cellini connection, at how he got the franchise for the Alton casino, the loan for the hotel he and his delightful wife Julie poured their hearts into.

And then, Bill showed up in the Crystal Lake City Council Chambers.

That night I was at Cub Scouts and the reporter for the Northwest Herald did not recognize the significance of Bill’s presence.

He and his Chicago development associates were making a pitch to develop Route 14 next to the Vulcan Gravel Pit.  A Tax Increment Financing District was going to finance the deal.

After the NWH figured out who had made the pitch, I got a copy of the video recording.

Here’s the long version an excerpt I posted. 1,459 have viewed it so far.

Here’s the short version:

Then, Bill’s legal troubles started with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Right after Bill’s consortium was selected over a local firm to develop the TIF property, he was referred to as one of those unnamed people in Tony Rezko’s indictment.

Very shortly, thereafter he withdrew from the deal.

Knowing how skilled Bill is, it seemed to me that Crystal Lake would have benefited from his involvement in the deal. Surely, the developement could have gone no worse than the total lack of progress seen so far.

So will Bill receive a guilty or not guilty verdict?

We’ll know soon.

Regardless, I have fond memories of him and he will enter my mind in every hotel bathroom.

Thanks to Boone County Watchdog for pointing me to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s report on lobbyists hired by units of local and state government.

I looked at the data base and found Huntley and Johnsburg listed.

Who are the lobbyists?

The report gives no indication of what the lobbyists did for either village.

Huntley retained a company called Morreale Public Affairs Group.  Kim Morreale is its principal.

Johnsburg hired the firm of Advanced Practical Solutions, which lists Sheri Osmani and Milan Petrovic as lobbyists.  Contractual relationships exist with

• Government Navigation Group, and
• Roger C. Marquardt & Company,
• Dan Shamon, Inc.

Or why the villages’ elected state representatives and senators were needed help in accomplishing whatever Huntley and Johnsburg wanted done in Springfield.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

FORMER FEDERAL PRISON CHAPLAIN INDICTED FOR ALLEGEDLY ILLEGALLY PASSING MESSAGES FOR CONVICTED KILLER FRANK CALABRESE, SR., AND ATTEMPTING TO TRANSFER CALABRESE’S HIDDEN PROPERTY

CHICAGO — A former federal prison chaplain who ministered to convicted killer Frank Calabrese, Sr., was indicted for allegedly illegally passing messages from Calabrese and plotting with him and others to recover a hidden violin from a residence Calabrese once owned in Williams Bay, Wis., federal law enforcement officials announced today.

Patrick Fitzgerald

The defendant, Eugene Klein, was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of attempting to transfer Calabrese’s personal property to prevent its seizure by the government in a two-count indictment returned late yesterday by a federal grand jury.

Klein allegedly obstructed enforcement of Special Administrative Measures (“SAMs”), first imposed on Calabrese in November 2008, to prevent him from further participating in illegal activities while incarcerated by restricting Calabrese’s contacts with others.

Klein also allegedly attempted to transfer property, which Calabrese told Klein was a valuable Stradivarius violin, from the Wisconsin residence in an effort to prevent the government from seizing the instrument and applying the proceeds toward a $4.4 million restitution judgment that Calabrese owes to his victims, including the families of those he killed.

Klein, 62, of Springfield, Mo., a Roman Catholic priest, was employed as a chaplain at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., where Calabrese is serving a life sentence.

As chaplain, Klein was permitted to meet with Calabrese on a regular basis to provide religious ministry, such as the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Because of the position of trust he occupied, Klein was able to have close and frequent communication with Calabrese, the indictment alleges.

Klein will be ordered to appear for arraignment in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The indictment was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and John F. Oleskowicz, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.

According to the indictment, Klein knew that prison rules prohibited him from taking letters and messages into and out of the prison.

He was also informed of the SAMs and understood they prohibited the passing of any information or messages to or from Calabrese.

The SAMs, which have been renewed annually and remain in effect, restrict Calabrese’s privileges in prison, including his access to the mail, media, telephone and visitors.

Under the SAMs, Calabrese is prohibited from having contact with anyone outside the prison, except his attorney and certain immediate family members.

Except for communications with his attorney, all oral and written communications with immediate family members, including mail and visits, are subject to review and/or observation to ensure that Calabrese does not pass any messages to anyone that could be used to further criminal activity.

In March of this year, Calabrese told Klein that he had hidden a Stradivarius violin, which Calabrese claimed was worth millions of dollars, within the Wisconsin residence, the indictment alleges.

However, paperwork found in March 2010 during a search of Calabrese’s residence in west suburban Oak Brook included a certificate for a violin made in 1764 by Giuseppe Antonio Artalli, not Antonius Stradivarius, the indictment further alleges.

On March 6, Klein allegedly spoke by phone with unnamed Individual A and asked about Calabrese’s Wisconsin residence, as well as three questions that Calabrese had given to Klein to ask Individual A.

The next day, Klein met with Calabrese and allegedly took possession of a handwritten note that Calabrese secretly passed to Klein through the food slot in his prison cell. The note contained additional questions Klein was to ask Individual A for Calabrese, and also disclosed the location of a violin hidden within the Wisconsin residence.

On March 26, Klein again met with Calabrese and allegedly took possession of a document that Calabrese secretly passed through the food slot of his cell.

As part of the conspiracy, the indictment alleges that Klein and Calabrese agreed that Klein would travel from Missouri to Illinois to

• meet with Individual A. Klein was to advise Individual A of certain questions Calabrese wished to ask Individual A;
• advise Individual A of the information Calabrese had told Klein about the violin; and
• formulate a plan with Individual A to remove the violin from the Wisconsin residence.

On April 3, Klein drove to Illinois and met with Individual A at a restaurant in Barrington, where Klein allegedly divulged the contents of a handwritten note that Calabrese had secretly passed to him.

During the meeting, Individual A told Klein that the government had seized the Wisconsin residence and was attempting to sell it through a realtor.

On April 5 and 6, Klein met with Individuals A and B and, together, they allegedly devised a plan to prevent the government from locating and seizing the violin by posing as potential buyers of the home.

On April 7, Klein called the realtor handling the Wisconsin home to arrange a time for the trio to enter the home and search for the violin.

Once inside, Klein and Individuals A and B agreed that Individual B would distract the realtor while Klein and Individual A searched for the violin using the directions that Calabrese had provided to Klein, according to the indictment.

The government conducted a subsequent search of the Wisconsin residence but the violin has not been recovered.

After Calabrese was held responsible for 13 murders by a judge and jury and sentenced on Jan. 28, 2009, to life imprisonment and ordered to pay restitution totaling $4,422,572, law enforcement authorities began efforts to locate and seize Calabrese’s assets to satisfy the judgment he owed to the families of his murder victims.

In March 2010, agents searched Calabrese’s Oak Brook residence, as well as his home in Williams Bay. At the Oak Brook home, agents seized cash, jewelry and other valuables hidden in a secret compartment in the basement. The total value of the seized items was estimated to exceed $1 million.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu.

Each count of the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the Court must determine a reasonable sentence to impose under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

When our family was in Springfield for the Old Capitol Art Fair last month, we stayed at the Drury Inn southeast of the tourist trap part of the city.

One route to and from is South Grand Avenue.

A sign left over from the Bill Brady for Governor campaign on Springfield's South Grand Avenue.

With the Democrats’ having just been unveiled, when I saw Brady for Governor signs along South Grand, I stopped to take their pictures.

Now I receive a press release from Senator Brady about his running for re-election in the new Gerrymandered district:

Brady to Seek Re-Election to Illinois Senate

Senator Bill Brady today announced he will seek re-election to the Illinois Senate in the newly drawn 44th District, saying his work to create a climate that encourages job creation and safeguards the financial prosperity of Illinois families is not yet finished.

State Senate Bill Brady speaks to Crystal Lakers at an Arpil 15th Tea Party demonstration.

“Frankly the Democratic leadership in Springfield still want to tax too much, spend too much and balance the books through borrowing schemes,” said Brady (R., Bloomington).

“Their anti-business policies have pushed Illinois to the bottom in economic development and job opportunity for our citizens. They have hurt our Central Illinois industries, our vast agricultural potential and our ability to help working families thrive.”

“I intend to keep pushing hard for reforms that bring greater financial security to our businesses and families, whether it’s real workers compensation reform that doesn’t put the business community against the medical community, educational reform that gives parents a greater role in their children’s educations, or real budget reforms that lower the cost of government and reduce the tax burden on our citizens,” Brady said.

In addition to his hometown base in McLean County, the new district includes additional territory for Brady in Tazewell, Logan and Sangamon counties and all of Menard County.

“I regret that I lost some areas that I currently represent because of strong ties to the people of those communities, but I am excited to be running in new areas and becoming more familiar with the challenges they face,” Brady said. “I look forward to the 2012 campaign and continuing to work for a better future for the people of Central Illinois.”

Brady, 50, served in the Illinois House of Representatives for eight years and has represented a large part of Central Illinois in the Illinois Senate since 2002. He currently is an Assistant Senate Republican Leader and was the 2010 Republican nominee for Governor, winning 98 of the state’s 102 counties.

Among other accomplishments, he has been a leader in bipartisan efforts to protect children from sexual predators, rewrite the state’s banking and insurance laws, provide health care insurance for retired teachers, protect pharmaceutical benefits for senior citizens, and revamp state campaign finance laws to curb pay-to-play politics.

Brady is a self-employed businessman with financial interests throughout Central Illinois. He and his wife Nancy have three children, Katie, a pediatric heart nurse in Chicago; William, who graduated from law school last month, and Duncan, who will be starting college in the fall.

When we went to the Kalahari Water Park in Wisconsin Dells a couple of weeks ago, I was on the lookout for posters about the bargaining rights dispute, the demonstration about which a Friend of McHenry County Blog sent me photos.

I had heard that union members wee going into retail establishments asking permission in a rather heavy-handed approach to put up “We support the union position” posters.

Admittedly, my sample was to small to reach a conclusion that merchants in the Dells wanted no part in the dispute, but my eyes did perk up when I saw the tee shirt below in Buffalo Phil’s:

Where did this high school student get her anti-Republican tee shirt, I wondered.

"Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins.

When I asked what the tee shirt’s message was all about, my hopes of having found something political were dashed.

The teen told me it was a tee shirt to promote a movie entitled, “Down with the Capitol.”

Something about a movie based on a Suzanne Collins’ book entitled, “Hunger Games.”

Below you see the front of the tee shirt, the symbolism of which escapes me

The front of the "Down with the Capitol" tee shirt has a sharp-beaked bird carrying an arrow.

Found a trailer of the movie. Only 1.5 million people have watched it. Good music.

Release date is March 23, 2012.

Maybe Illinois’ Tea Party folks should adopt the tee shirt.

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