Pensions In Illinois

Pension Crisis


There are some definite financial issues plaguing America today. These issues are greatly affecting the citizens of this once prosperous country.
With the soured economy draining money from the fed and pulling jobs from the people of America, we, as American citizens, need to ask ourselves, “Is there money being wasted or spent unwisely”? The answer to this question is most definitely a resounding yes.
Because speaking of all the areas in which the U.S. government is wasting our money would take much more time than intended, I will write only about government employee pensions in Illinois.
Illinois is driving itself deep into debt with government pensions. In 2008, according to Blagojevich’s administration, the pension debt in Illinois would exceed 44 billion dollars by the summer of 2008. There are some people in Illinois who are receiving 10's of thousands of dollars a month in pensions. These numbers are astounding. Even more astounding is the fact that the citizens of Illinois and the United States either don’t know or don’t care that we are spending money we don’t have so we can pay government worker’s pensions.
For the year 2009, most taxpayers in Illinois will be paying 6.2% of their income for social security benefits and 1.45% for Medicare. Then, the employer pays 6.2% for social security and 1.45% for Medicare. That means, for every employee, there is 12.4% of their income paid for social security and about 3% for Medicare. This means that 15% of the employees income is paid in taxes for retirement benefits. The self-employed have to pay the 15% for themselves. The general age for retirement in Illinois is 66-67 years of age. Government employees pay around half these numbers for retirement benefits and they're eligible for retirement at 55 years old. We are paying taxes on our income, our automobiles, our gas, food, clothes and who knows what else while the state of Illinois has already fallen into debt by more than we can even imagine. Now, Governor Pat Quinn wants to raise taxes in Illinois and insists on paying these outrageous pensions. The state of Illinois has the highest pension debt in the nation! How can this be justified?
The citizens of this country and the state of Illinois need to realize the facts of this pension crisis and they need to realize that while people all over the country are losing jobs, cars and houses, many government employees are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in pensions. The state of Illinois is broke and we need to fix it. The United States of America is broke and we need to fix it. This is the citizen’s money; this is our money and we DO have the right to know where our money is being spent.

Some useful websites on this subject:
www.ntui.org
www.revenue.state.il.us

Thank you,

Luke
Aurora, IL
lukehonor@live.com