Nothing easy about comparing pensions

Kudos to the Herald for attempting to look at the pension issue as it is front and center in Springfield. But picking on individual recipients smacks of politics. Clearly, there are many, many differences in the amount of, and basis for, the public pensions, which make it difficult to engage the public in a broad way.

However, a few weeks ago there was a statistic regarding Social Security to the effect that, for a person paying at the max income level for 40 years (ages 25 to 65), the expected lifetime payout would be something like 110 percent of what that person paid in. My challenge to your staff would be to develop that same comparison for the public pensions that began payouts during 2010. How much did the individual contribute, and, based on expected lifetime, how much are they expected to collect? An additional point of comparison might include the effect of Medicare premiums vs. publicly funded retirement health plans. As you are no doubt aware, Medicare premiums consume a significant proportion of many Social Security recipients' monthly checks.

Tim Hein

Palatine