Illinois Political Pensions

Periodically the papers here run a story about an Illinois political figure, typically a man of little note, who is simply cleaning up in some part of the Illinois pension complex. So the Tribune has another one, a guy who is changing jobs in a way that will boost his retirement income.

Illinois Statehouse News reported that Eddy's pension as school superintendent would have been about $70,500 a year. It will climb to at least $141,000 in his new job. His predecessor at the IASB, Mike Johnson, is earning an annual pension — get ready to swallow hard — of $193,273, according to TRS.

But that's not the end of Eddy's pension largesse. He'll be eligible in two years to begin collecting a pension of about $24,000 a year from his nine years of part-time work in the Legislature. Illinois Statehouse News projected his lawmaker pension carries a lifetime value of $584,273. Eddy is 53 years old.

If you are adroit
with your political career,
you can artfully exploit
our pension system here.

Of course, the ugly joke
is that the system's going broke.