IL just has to squeeze harder
Posted on 03/20/2015 11:58:30 AM PDT by WonkyTonky
By Eric Boehm | Watchdog.org
After working one day as a substitute teacher in Illinois, David Piccioli could be entitled to an annual pension of more than $30,000.
And he’s suing the state to make sure he gets paid.
Piccioli is a retired union political activist who’s already pulling down a pair of state pensions from Illinois’ beleaguered public retirement system. But he’s taking the Teachers Retirement System to court to squeeze more money out of the state.
The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that Piccioli is already collecting $31,000 annually from the Teacher Retirement System, but he could get an additional $36,000 annually if he wins his case. He’s also collecting a $30,000-pension from a different state retirement system for his time as a legislative aide in Springfield, according to the Tribune.
Piccioli is a retired lobbyist for the Illinois Federation of Teachers and never worked in a classroom, but he took advantage of a loophole in Illinois pension law to score his teaching pension.
In 2007, he worked one day as a substitute teacher at a Springfield school. Under Illinois pension law, that one day in the classroom allowed him to qualify for a pension that would pay him for all of his years of work as a member of the union.
“In 2007, Mr. Piccioli obeyed all laws to enroll in TRS on his first day as a classroom instructor,” said Piccioli in a statement released through his lawyer. “His enrollment was identical to 300,000 other members who joined the teacher retirement system after their first day of teaching.”
The key difference, of course, is that the vast majority of those 300,000 other members were working as teachers — not simply taking advantage of a sweet loophole in the pension law.
After media reports detailing how he and others took advantage of the loophole, lawmakers in Illinois passed a law in 2012 closing the loophole and reducing future pension benefits for those who had used it.
But the Illinois constitution contains a provision that protects reducing or diminishing any public pension. Piccioli argues reductions approved by the Legislature are unconstitutional.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, who sponsored the pension reform bill that is the subject of Piccioli’s lawsuit, told the Chicago Tribune the court challenge was “bold.”
“It’s unfortunate given the image that that gives about people who are receiving public pensions,” Raoul told the newspaper. “That’s not characteristic of the common, hardworking public-sector worker who makes a modest income and has a modest retirement benefit. It gives people the impression of otherwise.”
Piccioli is 65, according to the paper.
Illinois pension funds are under fire financially and legally.
The state’s pension funds are underfunded by more than $100 billion — not including Chicago’s pension funds, which are handled separately and are another $63 billion in debt — and are generally viewed as the worst state pension funds in the entire nation.
New Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has vowed to tackle the pension problems, but aside from kicking more money into the depleted funds and changing benefits for future employees, there’s only so much he can do about the current debt.
The bigger battle is in front of the state’s Supreme Court. It heard oral arguments last week in a case that will determine whether the state can reduce or eliminate automatic cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, given to retirees.
The state is arguing cuts to the COLA are necessary because of the dire state of the pension funds.
But unions representing retirees and current workers say the COLA is protected by the same constitutional guarantee that says pension benefits can’t be reduced in any way.
IL just has to squeeze harder
What does he think he is, a CEO?
Dont hate the player. Hate the game.
If the system where not broken he would be laughed out of court.
Such a deal. Work one day, then retire with a $30,000 annual pension??? Amazing.
Like California and New York, Illinois taxpayers see fit to provide a very comfortable retirement for their public servants.
While these states are all in fiscal stress, I expect President Warren will allow them to issue state bonds with federal guarantees.
Those 104 electoral votes are the bedrock of Democrat POTUS wins.
Perhaps it’s a poorly written story but I wonder if there is info not being passed along. It seems a bit hard to believe someone could work one day and get a a 30k pension. Probably more to it than that.
Good for him. Just doing his part to topple the system. Finally.
“Perhaps it’s a poorly written story but I wonder if there is info not being passed along. It seems a bit hard to believe someone could work one day and get a a 30k pension. Probably more to it than that.”
It happens all the time with unions. Unions reps get double pensions, one from the company and another from the union. They don’t have to do anything for the company, but they get a pension from them.
Wait until the entire lucrative bloated tax paid government employee pensions/retirement systems implode.
It’s very real and coming like a tsunami.
Remember always it was the DemocRats who gave the unions this benefit.
That’s what I was thinking too, how is it possible to just work one day and be qualified for a $30K pension? It says they closed a loophole but I can’t imagine a contract allowing you to only work one day and be qualified.
This is Illinois. Where Baraq Obama learned his political craft.
4 of the previous 7 governors have actually done hard time.
A little fast and loose with the pension laws is pretty low key theft.
Liberals have the Leacher and the Moocher DNA embedded in their souls.
Where does he think he is? New Jersey?
This kind of nonsense is why taxpayers (corporate & individual) are fleeing NJ in droves; so much of the (high) current revenues are going towards people who retired decades ago; little is left for current services. How long will current taxpayers pay for “work” done twenty years ago, and accept that they will do without in the present?
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