Tag Archives: Bill Zettler

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Illinois State Pensions: Overpromised, Not Underfunded

Posted on February 12, 2018 by David E Smith
Why is the Illinois Family Institute publishing another article about state government employee pensions? Because excessive taxes in Illinois are putting a strain on Illinois families -- and 25 percent of our state budget pays those overly-generous pensions. Now, policy experts Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner have provided yet more evidence that “A dramatic rise in pension benefits -- not funding shortfalls -- caused Illinois’ state pension crisis.”
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The Illinois Pension Scam: Unconstitutional and Corrupt

Posted on August 9, 2017 by David E Smith
Before citing a few facts and linking to a few articles from the Illinois Policy Institute, let me outline reality in simple terms: the pensions systems cannot be fixed. They need to be shut down, taxpayers should be cut free from the scam, and the state government should get out of the pension business. After decades, it has proven incapable of being trusted with tax dollars for employee pensions.
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The Illinois Pension Scam: State Officials (Including Conservatives) Have Known About it for Many Years

Posted on August 3, 2017 by David E Smith
Government employee compensation expert Bill Zettler, has had some great lines over the years. “Economics always wins,” is among his best. Despite the wishes and dreams of people on both the political left and political right, the day of accounting always comes. We are at that day right now as taxpayers face hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded pension liability...
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The Illinois Pension Scam: There is No Excuse for the Failure of Reform

Posted on July 29, 2017 by David E Smith

In preparation for the recording of an IFA Spotlight weekly podcast, executive director Dave Smith asked me to do some research about the Illinois government’s employee pension problem. For me, it is not a fun topic to delve into because for a dozen years now I’ve watched elected conservative state legislators completely ignore the seriousness of the legalized theft that has been going on in Illinois for decades as it pertains to pensions.

Yes, legalized theft. How else can you describe someone paying into a fund about $154,000 over the course of their working years and then expect $2,200,000 …

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Big Illinois Government’s Insatiable and Impossible Demands from Taxpayers

Posted on June 9, 2017 by David E Smith

It’s a sad tale of two cities.

The news out of Washington, D.C. this spring is that President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress plan on cutting taxes. The unsurprising news out of Springfield, Illinois is that General Assembly Democrats are planning to raise taxes.

Also not surprising is that there is a hot debate about whether the GOP tax cut efforts in D.C. can succeed. There is no debate, however, about Illinois Democrats’ accomplishing their mission. Especially when Republicans, including Governor Bruce Rauner, appear poised to help the Democrats.

What is also not debatable is whether …

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