The state of Illinois long ago made the embarrassing leap from local joke to national joke. The Land of Lincoln is now the corrupt, insolvent, morally vacuous, leftist dystopia of U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Springfield mob boss Mike Madigan, Governor J.B. Pritzker, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. I guess the lazy, irresponsible, anti-science, and morally vacuous community organizers that comprise the Chicago Teachers’ Union thought Illinois was not getting quite enough national PR, so on Sunday, they tweeted,

The push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny.

Say what? Even for head-scratching comments from leftists, that’s a doozy.

Are black and Latino families who want their children back in school learning and socializing racists?

Are mothers who want their daughters back in school learning and socializing sexist and misogynistic?

No need for defining terms, making assertions, and providing evidence that others are completely free to critique through reason and the provision of counterevidence. Just call names plucked from the intersectional name-calling toolbox.

Safety of school openings

Parents have seen the scientific evidence which clearly and consistently shows that if infected, children under 18 have a 99.997 percent chance of surviving COVID-19. These parents wonder why their children should suffer socially, emotionally, and academically from school shutdowns when the health risk of opening schools is negligible.

If the CTU opposes school openings out of fear for the safety of their union members, here are the survival rates for adults by age if they should contract the Wuhan virus:

22-24: 99.996 percent survival rate

25-29: 99.987 percent survival rate

30-34: 99.976 percent survival rate

35-39: 99.960 percent survival rate

40-44: 99.925 percent survival rate

45-49: 99.879 percent survival rate

50-54: 99.793 percent survival rate

55-59: 99.677 percent survival rate

60-64: 99.544 percent survival rate

Over two-thirds of public school teachers (71 percent) are under 50 years old, and only 17% are over 55.  According to the Illinois Policy Institute, “More than 71 percent of [Illinois’ Teachers’ Retirement System] members retired before the age of 60.” So, most teachers are at little risk of dying from COVID-19. Those employees who have co-morbidities that put them at great risk from contracting the Wuhan virus should be free to stay home.

But no teacher whose chance of surviving COVID-19 is over 99 percent but chooses not to work should not be paid one red cent. Their jobs should be filled by teachers who are rational and eager to work.

If teachers think it’s unsafe to work unless they’re guaranteed 0 percent risk of death, then they shouldn’t be working—anywhere. There’s a risk of death by driving to and from work or contracting influenza from a student or colleague. There is a risk of death from tripping over a small child or being bowled over by a strapping high school boy during passing periods. Life carries risks.

CTU tweet straight out of Critical Race Theory

The CTU’s tweet is what Critical Race Theory (CRT) has wrought in America. CRT—whose ideas are taught everywhere including in our public schools—divides society up into two groups: the purported oppressors and the purported oppressed. CRT claims that oppressors are those who allegedly have power and that the oppressed are those who allegedly lack cultural power.

So, who has no power—allegedly? People of color, women, those who are erotically attracted to persons of the same sex, and those who wish they were the sex they aren’t. That’s who. Those with power—allegedly—can’t help but oppress them.

Pastor and theologian John Piper identifies accurately the unbiblical assumptions at the dark heart of Critical Race Theory:

[A]t root [critical race theory proponents] believe a person’s essential identity is self-chosen, self-constructed, not God-designed or God-given. Or another way to say it would be that, when it comes to our own identity, we are our own god. We do not acknowledge or submit to any divine truth or morality as above us, constraining or limiting our own self-definition, self-construction.

So, if I choose to be a woman though God made me a man, I am right to do so. No God, no morality, no religion, no ideology can replace me as the self-determining, self-defining, self-deifying sovereign of my own identity. …

[The] fundamental assumption is that human identity is self-constructed, not God-given. Any group, therefore, that claims to have access to an infallible word of God that dictates human identity and human right and wrong is a manifest threat to human autonomy. Within the framework of critical race theory, the claim of biblical authority can be understood only as a group trying to seize power. …

Inside critical race theory, God is small and negligible. The Bible is small and negligible. Truth is small and negligible. And evil is big, and there is no answer for it. It is a hopeless path.

Who really oppresses whom in America?

While virtually the entire institutional power structure in America now worships at the altar of the gods of melanin, sexual libertinism, and genitalia, the Chicago Teachers’ Union expects us to believe persons of color, the sexually deviant, and women are relentlessly oppressed.

While people can and do lose their jobs for saying they believe homosexual acts are immoral and humans with penises are not women, the powerful in society celebrate those who announce that henceforth they will pretend to be the sex they aren’t.

I wonder, if the CTU believes opening schools constitutes hatred of women, what do they believe the vivisection of minor girls who suddenly believe they’re boys constitutes?

Chicago Teachers Union squeaks “uncle”

Facing a barrage of national criticism and mockery, the CTU deleted the absurd tweet and tweeted this in hope of soothing the justifiably outraged parents:

Fair enough. Complex issue. Requires nuance. And much more discussion. More important, the people the decision affects deserve more. So we’ll continue give [sic]them that.

“Continue” giving people affected by the CTU’s activism “nuance,” “discussion,” and “more”? Does the CTU expect people to be deceived by their inclusion of the word “continue” into believing the CTU has been providing “nuanced discussions and more” to everyone affected by their actions?

Once again, the CTU reveals its disdain for the public that pays their bloated salaries and benefits.

If only the CTU, the National Education Association, and all “progressive” activists working in public schools had the humility and commitment to tolerance, diversity, and critical thinking that they claim to have, we might have a shot at making government schools places of education instead of indoctrination.

If only “progressive” educators really believed what they tell parents about “honoring all voices” instead of censoring all voices with which they disagree, schools could become a “safe space” for even conservative students and teachers.

If only “progressive” educators who use the classroom to assail the beliefs of parents who pay their salaries respected boundaries, perhaps the government school system wouldn’t need to be dismantled.

Imagine a government school system in which “progressive” teachers and administrators admitted that some other things are complex and require nuance and much more discussion and where all voices were included in those discussions without fear or favor.

Imagine a government school system where systemic bigotry against conservative ideas did not reign supreme.

Imagine a government school system in which teachers and administrators acknowledged that ideas about race and racism derived from Critical Race Theory and embedded in the 1619 Project and a host of other resources recommended by CTU members are not objective facts but arguable assumptions.

Imagine a government school system in which teachers and administrators acknowledged that teaching other people’s children that conservative beliefs on sexuality constitute ignorant, hateful bigotry is neither objective, nor factual, nor the business of public employees.

Two chances of that happening: slim and fat.

This rare semi-apology from one of the most arrogant demographics in American society—leftist government schoolteachers—demonstrates one good thing: the collective voices of the great unwashed, ugly, deplorables still have some power remaining. And that’s why leftists want to undermine the First Amendment, pack the Supreme Court, end the filibuster, corrupt elections, and allow Big Tech and Big Media unfettered control over communication.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Absurd-Tweet-by-CTU.mp3

We are committed to upholding truth while resisting and opposing the rising wave of delusional thinking and tyrannical laws/mandates that have afflicted our state and nation. IFI will continue to provide our supporters with timely alerts, video reports, podcasts, pastors’ breakfasts, special forums, worldview conferences, and thought-provoking commentaries—content that is increasingly hard to find.

We encourage you to join us in our efforts. Your support will help us to continue our vital work in 2021. A vigorous defense of biblical truth is needed more than ever in Illinois. 

As many readers are aware, Illinois families and jobs have been fleeing the state in record numbers in recent years due to the heavy tax burden. It’s not just time for a change in Illinois tax policy, it’s time for a revolution.

If conservatives ever want to win majorities in the General Assembly and elect an effective governor, they have to start thinking big and getting bold.

Should Bruce Rauner lose in November, it’ll be fresh start time for the beleaguered Illinois Republican Party. That’s not a bad place to be for a political party in a state that is as dysfunctional as Illinois.

Number one on almost everyone’s list of complaints is the property tax system Illinoisans currently labor under. Talking about “freezes,” as the Illinois Policy Institute’s Austin Berg explains, is not a solution when so many homeowners are under water in their mortgages. People can’t afford the taxes now. Freezing it doesn’t change that.

The only real solution is for property taxes to be reduced — big time. Not a little here or a little there. And that reduction cannot happen with the current system.

You can blame your local governing bodies all you want (and they certainly deserve a lot of blame), but they all answer to Springfield. The only way for Illinois tax law to be changed is for the General Assembly to pass legislation and have the governor sign it.

Obviously, Democrats are not going to do this. They obey their biggest client, government employee unions. And those unions know the best way to fill their pots with gold is to legally shake down every homeowner in the state.

Change will only come when conservative state office holders and candidates find their courage and start selling one or more serious tax reform plans to Illinois voters.

Several questions rightfully follow.

First, where will the money come from if it’s not legally swiped from property owners? The answer to that question is found on that map above — you can read about it here. States with substantially lower property taxes find a way to fund schools, police and fire departments, libraries, etc. If they can do it, Illinois can do it.

Second, can enough money be raised in alternative ways to fund so many bloated local governments or government employee pension funds? The answer to that is no. I have two simple proposals that will instantly provide plenty of revenue to fund government at all levels.

Number one is total school choice. The tax dollars follow the student to the school of the parents’ choice. Illinois government-run schools have almost no competition, and until they get some, they will continue to run up costs, debt and unfunded liabilities for current and future taxpayers.

Number two is for the government employee pension systems to be separated from the taxpayers. Forget that stupid clause in the Illinois state constitution and the Illinois State Supreme Court. Neither have the power to tax, nor the ability to make the impossible possible. All those pensions will never be paid — it is mathematically impossible.

Local government consolidation should be a third step, but that’s too boring of a topic to get into here. The Illinois Policy Institute has an excellent set of ideas that can be found here.

There are far more property taxpayers in Illinois than there are government employees. Conservatives can win a majority of them with a well-thought out and effectively sold plan to reform the entire Illinois tax system. There will also be plenty of over-burdened Independents and Democrats ready to support such a plan.

As I said, think big and get bold.

Up next: Illinois is Insolvent and it is Time to Admit it.

Image credit: Tax Foundation.

IFI depends on the support of Christians like you. Donate now

-and, please-

Back in the 1990s, Illinois conservatives watched as Republican governors cooperated with General Assembly Democrats to lay a foundation for our state’s current fiscal disaster. Today, as 25 percent of the state’s budget goes to paying overly-generous pensions for government employees, some sleepy slow-to-learn Republicans are waking up to the fact that something is amiss.

The good news is that Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker has a plan to solve our state’s revenue problem. Of course, I’m kidding: we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

A proposal for a graduated income tax in Illinois is being sold in comical fashion by the comical Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) — a group that is never without a plan to take more money from hard-working Illinois families and hand it over to the government.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, liberal reporter Greg Hinz writes that CTBA has found a progressive income tax proposal that would “boost state income $2 billion a year while reducing taxes for 98 percent of individual filers, anyone with an adjusted gross income of less than $300,000 a year.” And if you believe that one, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Last year conservatives warned their fellow Illinoisans that the income tax increase that became law would not be the last tax increase. A progressive income tax wouldn’t be the last either — it would just be the next. When 25 percent of your state’s budget continues to fund retired government employees, while those pension funds are mathematically insolvent, it is foolish to think otherwise. And pension fund “debt” isn’t the only debt the state has amassed.

Wait, there’s more! There will be tax cuts under CTBA’s proposal. And their miracle plan asserts that “raising rates will not induce many higher-income individuals to move out of state”!

Campaigning in 2014, Bruce Rauner was vague about his claim that he could balance the state budget. Wisely, J.B. Pritzker is playing the same game in 2018. Though time will tell if Pritzker foolishly claims, as the CTBA does, that “98 percent of taxpayers would get at least some cut,” while “Those earning more than $300,000 a year would pay more, with rates rising to up to 9.85 percent for those with taxable income of more than $1 million year.”

Tax the rich! Too bad that never works out.

Mark Glennon, the founder and executive editor of Wirepoints, answers the CTBA:

CTBA’s New Progressive Tax Proposal Makes Our Case Against it

We’ve written here often that Illinois can’t count on a progressive income tax to solve much, if anything, in its fiscal crisis. That’s why many proponents, including gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, won’t get specific about what they spin as the primary solution to our problems, which we wrote about recently here and in Crain’s.

Well, the union-friendly Center for Tax and Budget Accountability just made the case for us.

They released a specific proposal and concluded it would raise just $2 billion in additional revenue. What that really does is prove the futility of thinking tax increases are a way out of our mess.

For some perspective on why $2 billion wouldn’t go far, consider just the additional funding required to meet “adequacy” under the new school funding formula. That alone will consume that $2 billion within six years.

Two billion dollars wouldn’t even cover the shortfall in unpaid interest that effectively accrues on pensions, much less begin to reduce their unfunded liability.

What about the rest of the deficit we’ve been running, which has averaged $11.7 billion over the last ten years, according to the state’s own financial statements?

How about something from the state to relieve suicidal property taxes so many municipalities are levying? Forget it.

And what about gubernatorial candidate J.B Pritzker’s list of promised goodies that so many progressives want?

“I think we all know what’s going on here,” Glennon writes:

Hurray, a tax cut for 98% of us so let’s get that constitutional amendment needed for this progressive tax proposal.” That’s what the CTBA and other proponents are hoping will be the response. After that, it will be, “Oops, wasn’t quite enough of a tax increase so….”

The entire article is worth your time — it can be found here.

In an article, Cole Lauterbach and Greg Bishop answer the question “Do Illinoisans support a progressive tax?” “It depends upon who you ask, they explain:

Jim Long, director of legislative relations for the Chicago-based think tank (the Illinois Policy Institute), said nearly everyone would support a progressive tax without the reality of math.

“It’s like asking a kid if they want ice cream for dinner. Everybody’s going to go for that,” he said. “We put [our poll] through the grinder of economics.”

Meanwhile,

All but one House Republican signed on to House Resolution 975 opposing a progressive tax ballot question, effectively killing the measure for this session. Rep. Jerry Costello became the first Democrat to sign on to a resolution opposing a graduated income tax when he was added as a chief co-sponsor to Rep. David McSweeney‘s similar House Resolution 891.

As always, readers must decide who to believe. Those defending and promoting excessive always-increasing taxes and government spending, or those calling for less of both.

For more on the topic, here are three recent articles of interest:

Taxpayer Victory: Progressive Tax Effectively Dead This Legislative Session

Fifty lawmakers are taking a pledge to fight a progressive income tax in Illinois, denying progressive tax proponents the support needed to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Illinoisans can’t afford another middle-class tax hike. But that’s exactly what proponents of a progressive income tax were seeking this legislative session.

Here is a news item about the first Democrat to publicly oppose a progressive tax hike:

Costello Stands With Taxpayers, Signs Resolution Opposing Progressive Income Tax

Calls to protect Illinoisans from a progressive income tax are now coming from both sides of the aisle in Springfield.

State Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Smithton, signed on as chief co-sponsor to House Resolution 891 on April 27. The resolution was filed in March by state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, and states that Illinois should not scrap its constitutionally protected flat income tax.

Given Illinois’ reckless spending habits, a graduated, or “progressive” income tax is the last thing the state needs. While sold as a tax on the rich, a progressive income tax could have disastrous consequences for middle-class Illinoisans while failing to address the state’s misplaced spending priorities.

The Painful Push for a Progressive Tax in Illinois

Instead of pushing for further tax hikes on tapped-out taxpayers, lawmakers should rally behind a bipartisan effort to limit state spending.

The push for scrapping Illinois’ constitutionally protected flat income tax is greater than ever, with Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker making it a key pillar of his campaign.

A progressive income tax is one of the most foolish policy choices Illinois could enact at a time when residents are experiencing crushing tax burdens, sluggish economic growth and high levels of outmigration.

Take ACTION: Please click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative.  Springfield hasn’t earned a right to additional tax resources. They have been utterly reckless with what they already get… more revenue simply will not improve their imprudence. Ask them to vote against any legislative proposal that would increase tax burdens for Illinois citizens. Ask them not to take much needed resources away from responsible family budgets to boost imprudent spending of Illinois government.

Let them know that you oppose any new tax increases when they refuse to cut government waste and bloat. You can also call your lawmakers’ Springfield offices through the Capitol Switchboard at (217) 782-2000.

PLEASE ALSO CALL THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE at (217) 782-0244 and/or (312) 814-2121.

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.

Some may think my position is extreme. I would argue that anyone pretending that the systems can be salvaged is dreaming “sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind” them.

They need to wake up. Bankruptcy laws exist for just this kind of  circumstance. The system is insolvent. Period. It’s not even close.

Another critical issue is also ignored: Looking at just the teacher union contracts with local school districts, they are premised upon the fiction that government employees and government officials (in this case elected school board members) can legally contract not only with under-aged Illinois citizens, but also unborn future taxpayers.

If contract law is to be applied properly, all the past, existing and current contracts would be voided. There isn’t one of them that has been signed in the past few decades that was not predicated upon the fact that future generations would have to pony up the billions of dollars needed to pay for generous health care and pension benefits once the contracted employees retired.

There is also a serious U.S. Constitutional issue regarding the unequal treatment that is being given to government employees. You can read about it here.

Regarding the Illinois constitution’s clause regarding diminishing benefits, how about we apply those words the same way our state constitution’s protection of religious liberty is being applied to Catholic charities and adoption, marriage, and bed and breakfast owners.

The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for all the excessive benefits. Conservative legislators especially like to use the court as an excuse for failing to get real about the magnitude of the problem. The court should be ignored. We are not a country or state run by the courts, but rather by the people, and the Illinois Supreme Court doesn’t have the constitutional power to tax and spend.

If members of the Illinois Supreme Court would like to consult with Bill Zettler about common sense, I have his email address. They’d double their understanding of constitutional government in the process. The state’s constitution cannot produce a miracle. Economics always wins and if something is impossible, it won’t happen. Even if you’re saying it should from a seat on the highest court in the state.

As promised, here are just a few facts and a few links from the Illinois Policy Institute:

• The problem facing Illinois’ five state-run pension funds is the unaffordable pension benefits that have been granted to government workers and government unions over the past several decades.
• The generous rules on retirement ages, cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, and employee contributions have caused pension benefits to grow by more than 900% since 1987.

Some of the biggest drivers include the following facts:

• 60 percent of state pensioners retired in their 50s, many with full pension benefits.
• Over half of state pensioners will receive $1 million or more in pension benefits over the course of their retirements.
• Nearly 1 in 5 will receive over $2 million in benefits.
• Almost 60 percent of all current state pensioners can expect to spend 25 or more years collecting benefits, based on approximate actuarial life expectancies.
• Due to automatic, 3 percent compounded COLA benefits, those pensioners can expect to see their annual pension benefits double in size.
• The average career pensioner will get back his or her employee contributions after just two years in retirement.
• In all, pensioners’ direct employee contributions will only equal 6 percent of what they will receive in benefits over the course of their retirements.

Those are all from this article, which includes this:

The generous retirement benefits pensioners receive are fundamentally unfair to the taxpayers who are forced to pay for them. Private-sector workers are expected to fund the pensions of state pensioners who can retire and draw benefits in their 50s, who can receive annual pension boosts that can double their pension benefits over the course of their retirements, and who get back what they contributed to pensions after only two years in retirement.

Now tell me, how can Republicans and conservatives serving in elective office in Illinois not be motivated to do something after reading just those facts?

A few more links from IPI:

Pensions Over People
The pension problem was created and has been fueled by weak politicians — men and women who decided their next elections were more important than the next generation.

Each Illinois Household on the Hook for a $56K in Government-Worker Retirement Debt
In just six years, the total debt Illinois households are on the hook for has jumped to $56,000, or 31 percent. That’s a $13,000 increase for each household. Total unfunded debt for state and local governments in Illinois now totals $267 billion.

Illinois Needs to End the Third-Party Payer Problem for Teacher Pensions
Illinois’ teacher pension system is structured to allow local school boards to agree to generous contracts, knowing taxpayers across the state will foot the bill.

For even more enjoyable reading, focus on “pension spiking,” the use of unused sick days to ramp up pension checks, and compare how Social Security measures up to being able to retire in your late 50s and get a pension that is an average of your salary for your final four years. Oh, and compare Social Security cost of living adjustments with that of the state’s 3% COLA.

Again, for the latest and best information the current state pension crisis, peruse the many articles at the IPI website.

As a footnote — other top shelf organizations have researched and reported on the government employee pension scam. Here are just three examples (follow the links to learn more from each group):

Mapping the $100,000+ Illinois Teacher Pensions Costing Taxpayers Nearly $1.0 Billion
By Adam Andrzejewski, the founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com.

The Heritage Foundation

And this problem is not unique to Illinois — visit Pension Tsunami to learn more.

Read Part 1 — There is No Excuse for the Failure of Reform

Read Part 2 – The Illinois Pension Scam: State Officials (Including Conservatives) Have Known About it for Many Years

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Last time when we focused on the writings of government employee compensation expert Bill Zettler, I failed to mention that Bill had some great lines over the years, such as:

“Economics always wins.”

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. (Read this if you think that under-funding is due to a failure on the part of taxpayers. It’s not.)

“If something is impossible,” Bill also said, “it’s not going to happen.” There is no way all the state pensions will be paid. In fact, those government employees who are already retired and collecting their generous pensions are stealing from future pensioners.

Were you aware of the fact that twenty-five percent of our state’s budget currently goes to fund government employee pensions? In other states the number is about four percent.

The math doesn’t work and cannot be made to work. If you want to learn more about just how bad the pension system currently is, I would encourage you to check out the annual pension study conducted by Taxpayers United of America. One of the best resources they provide is the list of retired government employees whose pensions are over $100,000.

Are you ready for this? There are currently 17,000 of them — and the number goes up every year.

Here are the leaders from each of the top five levels — $500k, $400k, $300k, $200k, and $100k:

Leslie Heffez’s current annual pension is $581,227. Leslie paid in $768,611, and can expect to get out $21,945,104 in lifetime benefits based upon life expectancy averages.

Das Gupta’s current annual pension is $494,773. It took only one year for Das to recoup everything he paid into the system, which was $475,331. He could receive $5,290,301 before the grim reaper comes calling.

Herand Acarian gets $392,682 every year. Not bad for having paid in only $628,987, and with a good long life, Herand could get back $6,843,239 or more.

Eddie Williams wins the $200k column, bringing in six times the annual average Illinois household income (which is approximately $50k) at $299,991. Eddie coughed up a whole $277,792 to invest into the system, and has already received $842,452 in benefits.  (Please read those numbers again.) If he stays healthy, he could cash in for as much as $5,527,649 over his lifetime.

After flipping through over four full pages of pensions exceeding $200,000, Rick Taylor tops off the $100-k’ers at an annual pension of $199,909. For the record, Ricky paid in $229,400, has already received $1,162,854 (he retired at age 56), and life expectancy charts could gift him $7,267,441 or more if he eats right and gets enough exercise.

Hello?

For the most up to date information about where the state’s pension systems stand now the place to go is the Illinois Policy Institute’s website. For several years now, their researchers have been firing off warning flares about the dangers ahead. How Republican and conservative state legislators, let alone our Republican governor, have failed to notice, is a mystery.

If they had noticed, the problem would constitute a big part of their message to their constituents and the hard working families around the state.

There are proposed reform bills, but they all fall way short. To be honest, it’s as if the authors are not reading the works of Bill Zettler or the Illinois Policy Institute.

As for Governor Bruce Rauner, he boasts continually about wanting to spend more money on the K-12 system.

Where does he think a lot of that money is going?

I’ll give you one guess. That level of ignorance is almost incalculable. More money for the worst run level of government in the state?

The solution is a push for universal school choice where the money follows the student. That is where the savings will come, as Illinois families will be freed from the government school monopoly, and move to more economical and effective education options. Short of that, Rauner will never fulfill his constitutional duty to propose a balanced budget.

If Republican leaders had truly noticed those IPI and Bill Zettler warning flares, they would have spent the past many years making sure that enough Illinois taxpayers would be informed and thus demanding that the problem be fixed.

Read Part 1 — There is No Excuse for the Failure of Reform

Up next: More about the Illinois pension scam.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

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 in pension benefits from taxpayers during their retirement years? Those are just the Teachers Retirement System numbers, as you can see on the chart below from the Illinois Policy Institute.

Ever wonder why so many kids have trouble with math? From these figures, not even the math teachers seem to understand arithmetic. If they did, we would have heard from the thousands of them spread throughout the public (government-run) K-12 and college systems. Certainly with math that far off they would have organized and spoken up to warn of the coming collapse of the impossible scheme.

But nope. Nothing. Silence. Why should they mess with a good thing? Why not keep your mouth shut and profit handsomely off of the taxpayers?

Thanks to several sources, especially the Illinois Policy Institute, it is difficult to not be drowned in an ocean of terribly disturbing facts.

There are a handful of organizations that have done and continue to do great work on this issue. In the following articles I’ll focus on the Illinois Policy Institute and Taxpayers United of Illinois. In this post, I have to give credit to business owner and government employee compensation expert Bill Zettler. A dozen years ago Bill wrote a letter to the editor at the Daily Herald which was titled, “Yes, Illinois needs pension reform.” Here was the opening sentence:

Give ’em a million, save a billion.

From the article:

My new slogan “Give ’em a million and save a billion” comes from a simple mathematical fact. The average teacher in Illinois who retires after 34 years retires with a pension worth well in excess of a million dollars cash. So if we taxpayers just give them a check for $1 million when they retire (whatever happened to a gold watch?) we will save tens or hundreds of billions over the next 40 years.

That was 2005. As you can see from this IPI chart, the numbers have skyrocketed since. (Click image to enlarge.)

There is so much material that a book could be written on the topic. Actually, a book has been written. A few years ago, Bill Zettler penned “Illinois Pension Scam,” with a forward by the late Jack Roeser. Buy a copy and read some of what your conservative legislators have been ignoring since Bill started to provide a free seminar on what is one of the biggest crisis facing our state.

Over the years Bill investigated and laid out the facts from several angles — and each article could have and should have sparked outrage on a scale large enough to begin a movement to force reform.

Why didn’t it happen? There are several reasons. You can be the judge about which might be the leading factor:

• State legislators deal with a lot of issues, and asking them to learn about the Illinois pension scam is too much to ask.

• State legislators would rather avoid the controversy that would arise when they would confront the army of government employees who benefit from the Illinois pension scam.

• In order to win public support for genuine reform would require state legislators to learn how to become public opinion leader regarding the Illinois pension scam.

• Illinois legislators have their own generous pension plan, so they don’t want to rock the boat and thereby risk having their own pension thrown overboard.

Bill Zettler also knew how to write effective headlines. Here are just a handful of examples for your reading pleasure:

This first post is from 2007 — and because it’s loaded with numbers I just link to the first part. Note — even back then the numbers were outrageous. Conservatives in Illinois have had plenty of time to learn about it and make the case:

Total Pension Liability for One School District: D300

Does Your Employer Contribute $69,000 a Year to Your 401k Retirement Plan?
Answer: I don’t think so. And it’s not because your employer is greedy but simply because it would be impossible to pay that amount and stay in business. They would be bankrupt.

This one is from 2009:

Gov. Quinn: Raise Taxes on $10/hr Workers by 41% to Pay for $10 Million Pensions
73,000 State University Employees Pay Zero for Pensions or Healthcare

Did you know that? The fact is, the count is many times that number when it comes to cushy teacher contracts.

Bill asked a lot of good questions over the years — here are two:

Should A Public Employee Have A Yearly Pension Greater Than His Career Pension Contributions?

Should Part-time Public Employees with Partial Careers get Six-figure Pensions?

Bill covered many anecdotal examples — here are three:

Work for the State 5 Years, Pay in Zero, Get $130,000 Pension
Work for Yourself 45 Years, Pay In $260,000 Get $28,000 Social Security. Anybody see a problem here?

Is $224,000 Per Year Too Much Compensation for a Drive’s Ed Teacher?
How about $1,174 per day for an Art teacher or $149/hr for an English teacher?

Pension Insanity: $75,000 Salary Turns Into $155,000 Pension for One Kindergarten Teacher
I guess it’s OK though; it’s for the kids.

As Bill Zettler wrote in 2008, it’s time to  solve the Illinois public pension problem.

Bill Zettler’s archive can now be read at my website.

Up next: More details about the Illinois pension scam.

Download the IFI App!

We now have an IFI mobile app that enables us to deliver great content based on the “Tracks” you choose, including timely legislative alerts, cultural commentaries, upcoming event notifications, links to our podcasts, video reports, and even daily Bible verses to encourage you. This great app is available for Android and iPhones.

Key Features:

• It’s FREE!
• Specific content for serious Christians
• Performs a spiritual assessment
• Sends you daily Scriptures to encourage and equip you
• You determine when and how much content you get

Click HERE to donate to IFI’s mission

Two years after the “temporary” income tax expired, rapacious Springfield lawmakers are once again working toward raising our taxes, supposedly in order to solve the state’s fiscal problems. This time they want to raise the state’s income tax from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent, raise the corporate tax from 5.25 percent to 7 percent and expand the state’s sales tax to include certain services.

In a partisan line vote, Illinois Senate Democrats passed these ridiculous proposals in SB 9 on Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 32-26.  Most of these lawmakers honestly believe that taking more money from citizens is the solution to the problem they created, instead of living within our means (which is $32+ billion annually).

SB 9 now moves on to the Illinois House.

Yet State Senator Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) recently gave a Facebook Live video presentation about the state budget that showed exactly how simple the problem is, as well as how simple the solution is.

The temptation for many is to make this matter of elementary math — addition and subtraction — resemble the complex study of particle physics. Actually, one of the best parallels used to explain the state budget is to compare it to a family budget. If you continue to spend more than you take in you are in for trouble.

As Sen. McConchie points out early on in his presentation, Illinois has set a new U.S. record by not having a state budget for 23 months. While 90 percent of the spending is still happening, the rate of spending is unchecked to the point where the state is falling further into debt at the rate of $15 million dollars a day.

Here’s a simple question: how can 118 state representatives, 59 state senators, a governor and his administration still continue to spend more than we can afford — to the tune of $15 million dollars a day?

According to Sen. McConchie, expected revenues for the fiscal year will be about $32 billion dollars, while expected expenditures will be about $38 billion. Basic math applied: that means the debt burden carried by Illinois families will increase by $6 billion dollars in just one year.

If that isn’t enough, our elected leaders have managed to accumulate $14.3 billion dollars in unpaid bills according to the Illinois Policy Institute.

For those interested in an overview of revenues and spending, Sen. McConchie used a few charts to lay out the details.

As you can see here, 51% of state revenues come via the income tax, 22% sales taxes, 12% Medicaid match by the federal government, and then a mix of other sources such as utility and cigarette taxes.

Sen. McConchie then showed where the money is being spent: 29% health care and family services, Medicaid, etc., 27% K-12 schools, 12% Department of Human Services, 8% higher ed, 5% Department of Corrections, and the other 19% is spread around other state agencies.

Sen. McConchie explained that negotiations continue in Springfield, but unfortunately they began with a discussion about raising taxes, not cutting spending. Sen. McConchie noted that the budget proposal presented by him and Sen. Kyle McCarter (R-Lebanon) focused on showing how the state could live within its means by cutting spending. Their “Taxpayers Bargain” budget does not contain any tax increases.

Also on the table is a massive expansion of gambling, which the Illinois Family Institute has shown to be a boondoggle every time it takes place.

Sen. McConchie did say that there are some good things happening, such as local government consolidation, procurement reform, and workers compensation reform.

Again, it is simple, just like basic math. The problem is a lack of leadership and courage to take on what is, at its core, a political problem:

The forces arrayed in support of spending are organized and well-funded and as a result, they practically own (through campaign contributions) most members of the General Assembly. Illinoisans calling for spending cuts are out-gunned despite the fact that they are not outnumbered. There are far more families and businesses suffering under an already heavy tax burden than there are beneficiaries of tax dollars.

That is also simple math: Illinois is losing population and businesses to other states because of its high tax burden.

Therefore, solving that political problem mentioned above is merely a matter of educating and activating enough of the taxpayers so their voices are heard above the din of the tax-eaters.

Bruce Rauner, who began campaigning for governor in 2013, has had four years to use his considerable wealth to do just that: educate and activate. His failure to do so is easily explained through the old but true statement: you can’t solve a problem with the same people who helped create it. Until Governor Rauner stops listening to the wrong people and starts listening to the right people, don’t expect to see any change. For the next year and a half we’ll just see the equivalent of more duct tape commercials paid for by a guy who likes to wear a gimmicky shirt as U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has done for years.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to tell your state senator and representative to stop expanding Illinois government “revenues” on the backs of hard working citizens and families.  Instead of raising taxes, Illinois leaders must cut wasteful spending and roll back the regulations and taxes that stand in the way of real, long term growth.

Ask your state lawmakers to vote against any legislative proposal that would increase any tax burden for Illinois citizens.

The Illinois Family Institute applauds Illinois Senator Dan McConchie’s work to help inform Illinoisans about the fundamentals of our state budget crisis.

We’ll close with a third graph from Sen. McConchie showing that Illinois’ spending problems are nothing new. As bad as this looks, it gets even worse. The above numbers don’t include the pension liabilities created by government employee unions through excessively generous and unrealistic employee contracts. That, too, is a simple problem that can be fixed. But not without leadership and courage.

Here is Senator McConchie’s Video Update:

Making Illinois a place where people want to do business and can afford to raise a family will do more for the bottom line than increasing the tax burden on Illinois citizens.

Download the IFI App!

Download our apps for your phone or tablet. We offer apps for a variety of devices. You can get our alerts, commentary, video reports and event notification on an Android and Apple devices.

Click HERE for the Android app, or click HERE for the Apple app.

Have you heard about the “Grand Bargain” that has been travelling the bumpy road of the legislative process in Springfield during this General Assembly session? Not surprisingly, it is neither a bargain nor grand for taxpayers.

Illinois Senate Minority leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) has been (or was?) working with Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) for a few months on trying to craft a budget that can pass.

There are conflicting reports about whether talks are still underway between the Radogno and Cullerton camps. There are not conflicting reports about the continuing Governor Bruce Rauner and Speaker Michael Madigan feud. Both sides are already blaming the other for the bargain’s failure.

Illinois has been without a budget for almost two years. What’s wrong with that? Many things, including what Illinois Senator Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) has pointed out, “Every day we go without a balanced budget, the state debt rises by $11 million.”

That deserves a repeat: Illinois’ debt rises by $11 million every day we don’t have a balanced budget.

Another not-so-little problem are reports estimate that without action, the state could have as much as $15 billion in unpaid bills by July.

Doesn’t it make you proud to live in the Land of Lincoln? On that topic:

Illinois registered voters are divided over whether they’d like to leave the state or stay, according to the latest poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Specifically, the poll found that 47 percent say they would like to move and 51 percent prefer to remain in the state. Just under 2 percent said they didn’t know.

It’s no surprise that taxes “are the single biggest reason” people want to leave.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s John Tillman recently noted that IPI “commissioned a poll that found that more than half of Illinois voters want lawmakers to balance the budget by only cutting state spending.”

With the help of our friends at the Illinois Policy Institute, let’s do a quick survey of some more of the unpleasant facts regarding Illinois’ fiscal state of the state.

Illinois Has Highest Overall Tax Burden in the Nation
A new report from WalletHub finds Illinois’ combined state and local tax burden is higher than that of every other state and the District of Columbia.

From the article:

Some state politicians want to make this tax burden even worse. The Illinois Senate is currently negotiating its so-called “grand bargain” budget deal, which includes billions of dollars in tax hikes for Illinoisans. Among the Senate’s ideas: a permanent 33 percent income tax hike, implementing a tax on sugary beverages, raising taxes on food and drugs, and expanding the sales tax to include previously exempt services.

The Truth About Your Property Tax Bill

From the article:

Illinoisans are struggling to pay the highest property taxes in the nation, and that’s largely due to unfair overspending in local governments.

How about those bloated and overly generous government employee pensions?

Interest on Illinois’ pension debt is $9.1B per year
A golden rule of finance is this: Debt that can’t be paid won’t be paid.

Just a few more:

Illinois Senate’s Spending “Cap” Doesn’t Protect Taxpayers, Core Services

From the article:

The Senate’s “grand bargain” contains a one-year spending “cap” that won’t improve fiscal responsibility. A real cap must come with structural spending reforms to return spending to a level that taxpayers can afford.

Lest you think it’s only income and property taxes being discussed:

Illinois Senator Pitches Expanding Sales Tax to Tattoos, Manicures and Pedicures, More

Illinois Pitches Sales Tax for Netflix, Spotify, Other Streaming Services

Ready for a silver lining (albeit a very thin silver lining)?

Six Illinois Republican state senators have pledged to not raise taxes:

Tim Bivins of Dixon
Kyle McCarter of Lebanon
Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove
Dave Syverson of Rockford
Bill Brady of Bloomington
Sue Rezin of Morris

Take ACTION:  Please send a message to your state senator to urge him/her to reject any and all proposals to increase taxes in Illinois. Springfield lawmakers need to understand that state government has a serious spending problem, not a revenue problem. Moreover, they have proven to be utterly irresponsible with the billions of dollars in revenue they already receive; why should they be entrusted with even more?

Image credit: Illinois Policy Institute.

Download the IFI App!

Download our apps for your phone or tablet. We offer apps for a variety of devices. You can get our alerts, commentary, video reports and event notification on an Android and Apple devices.

Click HERE for the Android app, or click HERE for the Apple app.

Now that the possibility of a tax hike passing with the help of “16 lame duck” legislators is not going to happen, Republicans cheer and Democrats lament, right? Not necessarily.

According to our state’s constitution, the governor has a lot of power when it comes to preparing the state’s budget, and, in fact, is constitutionally bound to present a balanced budget every year. Long-time Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has no such constitutional requirement.

Several Republican Illinois legislators have long assumed that Bruce Rauner would willingly sign a tax increase as part of a budget deal with Madigan. Those aren’t the headlines Rauner wants going into 2018’s gubernatorial election, however, so a super-majority Democrat controlled General Assembly doing the dirty work without the need of his assistance would have been ideal. And, of course, Democrats raising taxes again supplies a terrific weapon for all Republican campaigns.

Except that now, as Rich Miller reports, the Democrats won’t be doing Rauner that favor. So it’s back to the status quo, which really isn’t the status quo in that the numbers don’t stay the same, they continue to get worse.

Neither party has offered an honestly balanced budget in many years, and Governor Rauner, as chief executive, might possibly be blamed for the little things — here are just a few facts from the Illinois Policy Institute article “Illinois’ $204B Debt Crowding Out Payment for Social Services” (we have put them into bullet points for easy reading):

• Illinois will spend $1 billion more on annual debt payments than it will on human services in fiscal year 2017.
• Social service agencies in Illinois, such as The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, on average wait almost a year to get paid for the services they provide to the state’s low-income families, disabled and seniors. Many agencies have closed their doors, unable to pay their employees and rent.
• Illinois is sitting on a mountain of debt worth $204 billion.
• Illinois spends so much on debt that those costs now consume almost 18 percent of the state’s general fund budget.
• Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills is what often gets the most public attention. While significant – the money due to vendors reached $9 billion in November – it only makes up a small part of Illinois’ total debt.
• The real burden lies in Illinois’ $28 billion in bonds and its $111 billion unfunded pension liability. The $139 billion total is double what it was just 15 years ago.
• Another $56 billion is owed on government-worker retirement health insurance liabilities.
• Combined, these debts all add up to $204 billion. And that’s the rosy scenario. If more realistic investment-return assumptions are used, Illinois’ pension debt nearly doubles.
• Unfortunately, the state has just $79 billion in assets to meet its $190 billion obligation, leaving a $111 billion hole for taxpayers to pick up.

So is raising taxes a solution? Fiscal conservatives understand the answer is “no” — the Illinois Policy Institute’s Ted Dabrowski recently laid out the ABC’s:

For many, tax hikes look like the only solution to Illinois’ fiscal woes. But tax hikes will only make things worse. Illinoisans are already burdened with some of the highest taxes in the nation, including the highest property taxes of any state.

As a result of Illinois’ dysfunction, the state is bleeding people and its tax base. Between July 2014 and July 2015, approximately 300,000 people left Illinois for good and only 200,000 moved in, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This resulted in a loss of 105,000 residents on net to other states – an all-time high for Illinois. Tax hikes will only chase more residents away.

So what is the solution? Fiscal conservatives understand that, too — again here’s Ted Dabrowski:

The only way to keep Illinoisans here is to bring fiscal sanity back to the state through major spending reforms that bring Illinois’ budget in line with what ordinary Illinoisans can afford.

Fiscal sanity? Spending reforms? Uh, yes, and maybe that’s a nicer way of saying it than the plain truth — which is that Illinois needs to cut its spending by many billions of dollars if it is to ever make the budget math work.

Since Democrats have no wish to cut spending, and Republicans completely lack the ability to draw up a genuinely balanced budget and then sell it successfully to the people of Illinois, it’s a good bet we’ll just see more of the same. The budget can will be kicked down the road into the 2018 election year when tens of millions of dollars will be spent by each party trying to portray the other side as the villain.

The Illinois GOP has just launched yet another crusade to make Democrat House Speaker Mike Madigan as the chief villain. Here’s a better idea. Since Madigan knows how to win, Republicans should work on converting him into a Republican fiscal conservative. With Madigan’s political and communications skills, Illinois can then get back on the right track. Who knows, with Madigan’s abilities and Illinois’ potential, our state might soon be competing with states like Texas for businesses and experience the growth levels it once enjoyed.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to your state representative and to Governor Rauner to urge them to do the hard work of cutting the waste and bloat in Illinois government instead of constantly looking for new ways to tax the people. The size of government is the problem!

Here are just a few recent headlines for your reading pleasure:

State Budget Deadlock Continues To Harm Social Service Organizations

Illinois’ Billions: Pension Debt and Unpaid Bills Total More than $140B

State of Illinois’ Pension Debt Jumps to $130 Billion

Social Services in Illinois Say Situation Still Bad With Temporary Budget

The Illinois Family Institute is completely dependent on the voluntary contributions of individuals just like you.  Without you, we would be unable to represent our Christian values in Springfield or fight the radical agenda being pushed by the godless Left in our culture.

Please consider chipping in $25 or $50 to support our work to stand boldly in the public square.

Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation.

To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.