Give voters their say on pensions

Radio ads and union letters want you to believe that pensions in Illinois are only $32,000 per year. That may true of workers south of I-80, but north the pensions are over $100,000.

In 1970, when the lefties and the public workers unions set up the pension scheme, they didn’t tell the taxpayers that their scheme would make them pension millionaires. If all pensions were $32,000, there would be no pension crisis. But with teachers at $100,000, police and fire chiefs at $150,000, school principals at $150,000, administrators at $200,000, superintendents at $250,000 and college professors at $300,000, you can see why the state pensions are underfunded by $85 billion.

In my mind the majority of these people are riding the lefties gimme train. They say they are only here to “help the people” as they set up their multimillion-dollar pension packages.

Gov. Pat Quinn is the poster boy for helping the “people” as he prepares to retire with his own hefty pension. The only way for the taxpayers to impair these lavish pension is to get a proposition on the 2012 ballot. Anyone up for the challenge?

Gerald K. Thomas

Arlington Heights