Problem with pensions is abuse

In the July 23 edition of the Daily Herald, Mr. Brian Mooberry had a fence post article titled "3 ideas for fixing state pension debt. Mr. Mooberry states "It's time for our legislators to come up with a balanced budget without cutting funds from needed programs and increasing taxes."

Then his first "idea" is to "charge a $2 fee for every contract bought and sold on the Chicago Board of Trade." This is a tax.

Mr. Mooberry has been featured in the Daily Herald before as he is president of the Northern Kane County Retired Educators. It is always hypocritical when a retired educator wants everybody else to be taxed so the state can pay for their bloated pensions.

And Mr. Mooberry's pension is the classic example of this. Mr. Mooberry taught for 33 years in school district U-46. He received salary spikes of 30 percent over his last two years of employment. This allowed him to collect a pension in 2014 that is the equivalent to his last pre-spiked salary when he was employed.

Of course, Mr. Mooberry is not the exception to the rule. Tens of thousands of retired educators have received similar pension spikes over the past two decades and this costly and wasteful practice continues today. In fact, according to the district U-46 website, this district doled out a staggering $18 million in "retirement enhancements" to their employees in 2014.

What is really perplexing is that every educator received a spike - not just those nearing retirement. The average salary spike of their 2,386 educators is 12.3 percent. And this in a district in which 64 percent of their students come from low income families.

There is no "pension payment problem" - only a pension abuse problem.

Ken Hofrichter

Elk Grove Village