Too many in public jobs are overpaid

Your "Guest View" article on June 21st called "Seize the day and cap property taxes" should be a wake-up call to why Illinois is in such dire financial condition.

More than 17,000 teachers making more than $100,000 and by 2017 10,000 will have guaranteed lifetime pensions exceeding $100,000. Most of them only work eight or nine months a year with holidays and summer vacations.

Local school treasurers and park managers are making more than their state counterparts and 47 village managers are making more than any governor in the U.S.

Too many people have been overpaid for too many years. This is absurd!

Our Illinois Supreme Court in its wisdom has handcuffed the budget by declaring that pensions cannot be diminished or reduced in any way, so we are stuck with decades of public worker pensions with no way out.

If that's what the Illinois Constitution says, then why not change the Constitution or declare bankruptcy and start over? The option no taxpayer wants is to raise already high taxes continuously to keep up with these costs.

Already, many taxing districts (of which there are too many) are thinking about raising their share of taxes. We can see it coming.

I don't think the Illinois Constitution says that current wages and benefits cannot be slashed, so when public worker contracts are up for renewal, many of these overgenerous wage and benefit packages could be "readjusted" by 20 or 30 percent.

There may be strikes to be waited out, but usually the strikers are the big losers in the end. Something has to be done.

Alan Devereaux

Bartlett