By: Diane Benjamin
Spiking pensions in Bloomington has cost taxpayers over $2,000,000 since 2012.
Spiking a pension means collecting more in retirement than employees are entitled to. Your government “gifts” them more retirement at taxpayer expense. The IMRF retirement system started charging for spiking when they realized the pension funds would not remain viable if people were collecting money for which IMRF never received contributions.
The City of Bloomington has been playing a game for years. They have a continuous list of court cases they are watching instead of changing WHEN employees are paid for accumulated comp time. TWO MILLION DOLLARS+ would have covered a lot of legal expenses if employees had sued. So far every court case has been won by government, but the gutless wonders at the City would rather pander to employees. Some of the union contracts even codify spiking.
Last night Donna Boelen spoke about spiking during public comment. She knows this practice is outright THEFT from taxpayers. Just hit play below to hear her comments.
Here’s where the City gets really funny. Last night’s performance stating yet another employee was about to spike his pension was to comply with a law that went into effect in 2016.
Here’s the law: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3720&ChapterID=11
Here’s why the dog and pony show took place last night and will continue to occur until the City understands YOU know this is theft! Funny how union contract spiking is exempt from disclosure! Since most of the City employees are union, most spiking will only show up on Bills and Payroll.
You can hear the presentation from Human Resources and a brief Council discussion at 1:12:17.
Scott Black said he wants to hear what costs would be incurred if spiking was ended. Springfield City lawyer Jeff Jurgens hurriedly back pedaled.
Scott here’s the bottom line:
- employees would still get their “earned” comp time
- employees would still get the pension they are entitled to, not more because of this scam
- an estimated $5 million more in penalties is waiting to be paid – taxpayers avoid that expense
- if employees sue I will expose them as greedy SOBs
- any legal fees incurred won’t come close to $5 million
It is so much easier to raise your taxes, so don’t expect the gutless to change the policy. Only a new Council can do that.
Why in the world isn’t this illegal, or is it?
As long as the city pays the penalties, IMRF tolerates them.
No one on Council understands the ramifications of their lack of action surrounding pension spiking. The HR guy in charge of benefits has only been working at the City for one year and clearly couldn’t answer the Council questions.
IMRF payments are made from property taxes. The accelerated payments are not budgeted. The money has to be taken from some other account.
As far as I’m concerned, the Appellate court of the State of Illinois has ruled. The unions be damned.
Here is another tidbit from the 2016 law which was put in effect as a result of outrageous accelerated payments.
(e) A participating employer may not make a disclosable payment to an employee in a manner inconsistent with this Section. This Section is a denial and limitation of home rule powers and functions under subsection (h) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution.
(Source: P.A. 99-646, eff. 7-28-16.)
The public disclosure for non-union employees is only required if the accelerated payment is 6% more than the previous year’s earnings.
Scott Black – Scott as long as you’ve been an elected representative in this area, you should be ashamed that you’ve finally asking what the costs would be incurred if spiking were ended. (I guess your followers never pondered if you were smarter than a 5th grader.) As often as this subject matter has come up, you’re days late and millions of dollars short. Failure Scott, failure! Your every move is based on Scott #1, what’s best for the citizens is a joke to you.
In case you were not aware, District 87 and Unit 5 have also done this for years. For years, I editorialized about how wrong it is. I think it is still going on. Bill Wills
In their case, isn’t it the state that has to pay since they don’t fund their own pensions? Still tax dollars, but so much easier when it;s somebody else paying.
ALL the council AND Jurgens SHOULD know what “spiking” has and WILL cost the city.
But like everything else, they all fail at addressing the REAL issues..
They NEED to be held accountable, as SOME of the people who has already done it didn’t even deserve the pension their got, let alone a “bonus”