Just how did this pension mess happen?

We’ve been reading in all the newspapers about the pension mess in Springfield, the exorbitant penalties being absorbed by the suburban taxpayers because of padding administrators’ pensions before they retire, at an age the private sector would really salivate over if it were applied to them too, but nowhere have we learned how all of this has actually come about.

Who really has control over awarding all these lucrative wages and pensions? What recourse is actually available to us the taxpayers bearing the brunt of all this unwarranted largesse? We have multiple teachers earning six-figure salaries, school administrators making more than the governor, and still have to import skilled workers, because we’re not making our own. Why?

Allegedly, Democrats are considered tax and spend, Republicans are inherently frugal. Please, can someone tell me, what was the political makeup of the board, or group or body of people that decided that the public sector should be so much more deserving than the population at large? Why is every wage and benefit warranted and sacrosanct when it comes to the public sector? Who decided it was a good idea that publicly funded workers should get 75, 85 percent of their salary when they retire?

Now they’re talking in Springfield about making local governments responsible for some of the largesse they’ve been passing out to their public employees in pensions; a case of our chickens coming home to roost, or unfair? Who can tell us?

Taxes are already in the stratosphere (look at the restaurant tax in Schaumburg); they’ll next start levying a fee on our breathing, and still there will not be enough money to cover our current public employee liabilities. Just look at where the bulk of your taxes is applied. Who is responsible for this? Tell us, please.

Rosemary Colbert

Schaumburg