By: Diane Benjamin
Open the Books has a new interactive map showing the salaries of government employees across the country. I highlighted Bloomington Normal.
When you click on the link below you will see 4 “balloons” over BlONO. Make sure you click on all 4, the data is different on each. Want to know why college is so expensive, click on the one partially hidden.
This site lists all public salaries and pensions in excess of $95,000 a year. Smaller surrounding towns are also included on the map. If you want different data, simply change the zip code at the top.
If the salaries listed don’t astound you, the pensions probably will. It will be obvious why Illinois pensions are not sustainable.
Click on the area towns, most (if not all) of the high salaries and pensions are from school districts. Next check your property tax bill. Over half of the property taxes you pay go to school districts. The data proves why.
https://www.openthebooks.com/map/?Map=90001&MapType=Pin&Zip=61701
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Stunning and sickening. This list just reflects salaries or pensions. It does not include their gold-plated benefits (medical, vacation, etc.)
In case readers don’t know, I can tell how many people actually click on the link. For once most are. I could have listed some of the data, but people wouldn’t have clicked it. They need to see it all for themselves. It is stunning!
At least they are working for their government paycheck. Not sure you can say the same Diane.
Of course I don’t work for government! I’m not R C McBride who makes laws and reports on them too.
Which list are you on?
Oh, I didn’t say you work for the gov. But you still get check from the gov.
What check would that be?
I suspect this bears a slight resemblance to the roster of supporters and/or voters of Renner and Koos. Seriously, these salaries are way too high, especially for a community where the median home price is south of $160k and the cost of living is low. Ironically, the ‘pensions can’t be altered’ IL Supreme Court decision is not the victory the unions and their members think it is. In fact, it guarantees that members will go down with the sinking ship that is Illinois. I really wish the members would challenge the thinking of their union overlords and take that first step. No one wants to turn their backs on an 85-year-old retired firefighter who is there for us now in his/her prime. However, that’s exactly what is happening when the unions refuse to even consider restructuring or renegotiating for the long-term.
Nobody wants to turn their backs on the police officer, fire fighter, etc. However, we are not at a point in our fiscal solvency where we can afford someone to work 25-30 years and retire in their early-to-mid 50s with a pension of 75-80% of their highest years’ salaries and guaranteed 3% raises. We cannot afford to pay that level of pensions to people for periods that can be longer than the years they worked.
If you have someone who makes $50,000 most of their career and then spikes to $75,000 or $100,000 the last few – as happens as places like ISU or people getting promotions – they will have paid into retirement at much lower levels than they will collect. Toss on the 3% COLAs and these will go through the roof.
I wish every student could see the salaries at ISU, so they could think about who robbed them when they spend the rest of their lives paying off their worthless degrees.
Their degrees aren’t worthless. They can see our salaries anytime they want, they’re published in the library.
I wonder what positions some of these people hold within the Town of Normal. I know a few names, but not all. I have to imagine some of them are worth the money, but someone like Sally Heffernan, who runs the “economic development” group in Town and does nothing, surely doesn’t deserve the huge salary she’s paid.
This is just UN-BELIEVE-ABLE! Even a small town like LeRoy pays $20 K a year MORE then Gibson City for a school Supt. and ALL those $100K + salaries in the twin cities. Someone NEEDS to wake up and QUIT giving these folks “pie in the sky” wages AND pensions. It’s too bad Nurses, Mechanics, Electric line men, etc-people who REALLY do hard work don’t make NEAR this kind of money, and police that sit and “hide out” in parking lots, Getting coffee at McDonalds, etc doing paperwork or whatever, making $100 K a year. They SHOULD be WORKING if they’re ON THE CLOCK for that dollar!
little reason education is so expensive…what are getting for this huge outlay…note niehaus is getting 175k a year in a pension and working in a ritzy Detroit suburb, why is Unit 5 on the hook for all 175k, he only worked here 7 years, 2007-2014, pretty good gig huh? ________________________________