Pension paid in Chicago's collar counties.
The Daily Herald’s Jack Griffin continues its look at how much locally elected officials get paid.
The latest comparison is for pensions for collar county board members.
You may remember my previous praise for a previous McHenry County Board whose members withstood the entreaties of countywide elected officials to opt into a special elected county official pension program that would treat them as well as state legislators are. (Most readers will remember I am one of those retired state legislators receiving a generous pension for which I thank you again. See here for details.)
In any event, because the McHenry County Board did not vote to participate in that pension program, local property taxpayers are being taxed to pay for county board member pensions in the $3,000 range. The pension fund in question, the IMRF or Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is the most well-funded of the major pension funds in Illinois.
In the graphic publishes along with the Daily Herald article.
The Illinois General Assembly repealed the law this spring. The roll calls showing those who voted for the 1997 legislation can be found here.
Winnebago County’s Board abolished its pension program for county board members.
Part-time public officials should receive no taxpayer funded pension benefits. Period.
Totally agree with Shawn Green on this one!
Ditto !!!
Maybe Mr. Green is actually agreeing with what others have said for a long time…
Wow.
The average DuPage County Board Member pension is over 12x higher ($45,627) than the average McHenry County Board Member Pension ($3,560), and both are in the IMRF pension system.
Pension reform is proposed.
The Illinois House voted 110-0 and the Illinois Senate voted 56-0 in favor of House Bill 3253 to end the enhanced county official pension program in IMRF. HB3253 now sits on Quinn’s desk to sign.
Here is the URL to the Daily Herald chart, 2011 Pensions For Former Suburban County Board Members.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110608/news/706089963/graphics
Let’s compare the 3 highest and 3 lowest pensions in DuPage County, to the 6 listed for McHenry County.
DuPage County McHenry County
Bob Schillerstrom $106,858 Daniel Shea $6,786
Bill Maio $101,250 Donald Larson $5,489
Dean Westrom $77,900 Donald Brewer $3,163
Olivia Gow $15,165 Daniel Ryan $2,532
Alice Peterson $13,549 William Dwyer $1,875
Kenneth Moy $11,273 Alexander Orsolini $1,157
I bet the DuPage County Board Members are thankful for the Pension Protection Clause that was ADDED to the Illinois State Constitution in 1970.
The “Pension Protection Clause” states in Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution: “Membership in any pension or retirement system of the state, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.”