Illinois Tea Party
Pension & Compensation Abuse Team
Goals & Objectives
4/2/11
Introduction
Our nation and the state of Illinois are deeply in debt due in large part by the excessive spending on public worker compensation and benefits. On the federal level public employees make an average of 40% more than private sector counterparts. During the current recession the private sector lost 8 million jobs but the federal payroll grew by 200,000.
In Illinois we have over $100B in unfunded pension and retiree healthcare promises – a staggering $29,000 per taxpayer. While the state lost over 400,000 private sector jobs the number of $100K pensions for state workers grew by 26%. These six figure pensions are not just for executives but for teachers, fireman and police – over 14,000 to date.
The common denominator – powerful public unions and their indebted elected officials who place their well being above those of the taxpayers. The following are examples of corrupt/bad business practices that must change in the public sector:
· Collective bargaining for pension and benefits – and the use of union dues for political campaigns
· Benefit protection greater than private sector bankruptcy protection
· Pensions greater than private sector equivalent
· Health care benefits greater than private sector equivalent
· Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) greater than social security
· Retirement age less than social security
· Mandatory pay raises irrespective of performance or the economy
· Multiple state pensions (double/triple dipping)
· Tenure
· Lack of transparency and easy access to public employee compensation
Team Objectives
Using the Tea Party core values as filters (fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets) we will help drive major reforms to public employee compensation policy. The primary objective is to bring public sector compensation in line with the private sector as quickly as possible – especially the state of Illinois. This is imperative because our economic survival depends on eliminating this debt. Because pension abuse is both a financial and ethical dilemma we believe the entire population of public employees should be on the table (retired, current and future). This will ultimately require a change to the 1970 constitutional amendment that prohibits changes to pension benefits. This amendment and the unfettered union influence are precisely what drove the corrupt business practices.
This undoubtedly is a multi-year effort with a major push in 2011 to begin the transformation at local, state and federal levels. Our scope includes all public employees (municipal, education, police and fireman). There will be some overlap with other teams including education, healthcare, regulation and others because we are all identifying bad business practices – many of which are compensation and work rules related. We will use all avenues of communication especially the tea party web sites. Our focus is to provide the tea party with specific content (fact base) and subject matter expertise. We will also define the end state for the reform (taxpayer expectations).
Lastly we need to drive a paradigm shift in our elected officials from “job creators” to “effective tax dollar managers”. For decades our government has been represented by those who could ensure union job protection regardless of the cost to the taxpayers. Reforming public sector compensation and work rules are essential to this transformation.
Our team includes Kevin Kelly, Phil Coppney, Gary Grasso and Janet Shaw. For more information or involvement with the team please contact me.
Jeff Tucek (jeff.tucek@comcast.net)
Leader - Pension Abuse Team
Illinois Tea Party
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