daughter of a Civil War veteran – who, in 2017, was still collecting $73.13 each month from her father’s military pension. But this qualifies as a curious one-off and,
And then? Well, one thinks, maybe the city could just stiff the retired cops – declare bankruptcy and let the courts sort it out. But not so fast there. While federal bankruptcy law appears to permit municipal bankruptcies, Illinois law does not. Furthermore, the Illinois constitution protects workers’ pensions. So... pensions they were promised. Which means, of course, that the money has to come from somewhere. And where, one asks, would that be? That answer would seem to be... the usual. Taxpayers. But as the state of Illinois is learning, Chicago must pay retired policemen, schoolteachers, and various others the
anyway, we can probably afford it. The pensions for our current crop of
governmental heroes can, on the other hand, be generous and even lavish. And in some cases, they are outrageous. As reported by the New York Times , Oregon’s pension payment to an eye surgeon who retired as president of the Oregon Health & Science University comes in at $76,111. That would be per month . There are similar cases – if not quite so outrageous – from across the country. And then there are the schemes workers in the public sector routinely employ to inflate their pensions: banking sick time, increasing overtime in the last year before retirement, and so forth. It’s how our “public servants” roll. But sooner or later, reality will assert itself in the form of the Herb Stein Law, which states simply and eloquently: If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. In the case of Illinois and Chicago, that time appears to be closing in. According to one study by public-policy watchdog LGIS: At the end of 2020... the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago will have less than $150 million in assets to pay $928 million promised to 14,133 retirees the following year.
And then there are the schemes workers in the public sector routinely employ to inflate their pensions...
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November 2018
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