Almost 4,000 retired government workers in Illinois get pensions of at least $100,000 per year, and more than half of those have collected more than $1 million each since they retired, according to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation.
Almost 4,000 retired government workers in Illinois get pensions of at least $100,000 per year, and more than half of those have collected more than $1 million each since they retired, according to a Chicago Sun-Times investigation. The newspaper looked at the pension money paid to former government workers including politicians, judges and school administrators. It found that a few of those retirees have topped $2 million in total pension payments and five have gotten more than $3 million each. U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, who previously served as state comptroller and attorney general, has received $1.4 million since he retired in 1995 at age 57. The Chicago Democrat’s pension, which has risen nearly 50 percent since retirement because of inflation adjustments, is now $121,747. Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch, 82, another retired state comptroller, gets $114,733 a year and has collected $1.4 million since 1995. "I know I get a big pension," said Netsch, now a Northwestern University law professor. "What am I supposed to do? Refuse it?" Republican Judy Baar Topinka, 65, gets an annual pension of $141,482. The amount is based on a salary she was entitled to as state treasurer but didn’t collect because the salary wasn’t funded by the Legislature until after she retired. Topinka is running for state comptroller next year and her pension would be suspended if she wins. Illinois’ biggest pension is paid to Dr. Alon Winnie, 77, former head of anesthesiology at Cook County Hospital and the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago. His two pensions add up to $447,233 annually. The newspaper analyzed data obtained from the 17 largest retirement plans for government workers in Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois. Those plans cover more than 374,000 retired workers or their survivors. The Sun-Times found that more than 14,000 retirees have pensions that pay them more than their final salaries. "People are drawing pension benefits far richer than they would in the private sector," said Laurence Msall, president of the watchdog Civic Federation. Most U.S. companies have done away with pension plans because of their growing costs, turning instead to 401(k) plans where workers can save for their own retirements. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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