|
 Former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis
was charged with bribery for soliciting $15,000 for a zoning change, but his
cooperation with federal prosecutors may let him avoid the guilty plea that
could send him to prison and cost him his pension.
A federal judge has ruled to delay prosecution of Solis’ bribery charge until
April 2025, which means he can continue to collect his annual pension of
$100,573. If he avoids a guilty plea, Solis will continue to enjoy his
six-figure pension plus annual 3% cost-of-living adjustments.
Solis paid $297,027 in retirement contributions until he left office in 2019. He
will have recouped that investment this year.
When federal investigators confronted Solis sometime between 2014 and 2016, he
agreed to cooperate and wore a wire to record conversations with elected
leaders. Solis’ cooperation led to indictments against the two most powerful men
in Chicago and Springfield: Ald. Ed Burke and former Illinois House Speaker
Michael Madigan. Solis is expected to testify against Burke and Madigan.
Solis is one of a dozen Illinois Democrats either currently in office or retired
who are under significant scrutiny from federal investigations while either
drawing their pensions or expected to receive large pensions. In many cases
pension payments aren’t stopped until a lawmaker is actually convicted of a
crime: they can continue to collect at taxpayer expense while awaiting trial.
This isn’t the only form of pension abuse. Some top-dollar pensioners take part
in double dipping. Double dipping occurs when public employees can retire at an
early age, draw their full pension and immediately take another job –
significantly increasing their taxpayer-funded income through their monthly
pension benefit and another high salary.
John and Ellen Correll are a husband and wife double-dipping duo who were
recently highlighted by Wirepoints. Both retired and then shared the role of
superintendent at Skokie School District 73.5 during the 2020-2021 school year,
earning each of them $90,000 on top of the pension payouts they began collecting
in 2019. They did the same thing the year before at Antioch Consolidated School
District 34. John Correll’s current pension is over $210,000 and Ellen Correll’s
is just under $80,000.
 Other top-dollar pensioners receive the benefits of pension spiking. Pension
spiking occurs when public leaders approach retirement and are given large pay
increases to boost future pension payouts. Former Metra CEO Donald Orseno
received two significant raises in years leading up to his retirement in 2017,
including one that was granted retroactively.
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After a single year on the job in 2015, he received
a $26,500 boost to his $262,500 salary. In 2016, he was granted
another $28,000, upping his salary to $317,500. Orseno is currently
receiving the largest Metra pension, getting $15,752 per month from
taxpayers. Pension abuses have been common in the
state across numerous sectors. Although just as egregious in some
cases, many abuses, such as double-dipping and pension spiking, are
actually legal and either were allowed by the rules of the current
pension systems or continue to be allowed.
This activity not only takes advantage of taxpayers, but also gives
Illinois pension recipients a bad rap for growing pension problems.
Taxpayers are staring down $317 billion dollars in pension debt,
even though pensions eat up 26% of the state’s operating budget.
They are a significant reason why Illinois has the nation’s highest
state and local tax rates, second-highest property taxes, and
second-highest gas taxes.
The pension clause in the state’s constitution states pension
benefits cannot be “diminished or impaired,” leaving no way to
reform current benefits without passing a constitutional pension
reform amendment. But the power of the language in the state’s
constitution works both ways.
While legislation has been passed in order to curtail these types of
abuses, Amendment 1 threatens to override protections from pension
abusers.
The language of Amendment 1 could let pension exploitation become
commonplace by granting broad new powers and bargaining rights to
unions. Illinois already struggles with outsized government union
power driving corruption, and Amendment 1 could make it harder to
root out public corruption.
That’s because Amendment 1 would elevate government union collective
bargaining agreements above Illinois state law. State laws governing
investigations, ethics and conduct, pensions, job qualifications,
and other issues would be overpowered by union bargaining
agreements, with no way to pull back on that power were it to become
enshrined in the Illinois Constitution.
Illinoisans are tired of public servants who think the public serves
them, so before Nov. 8 voters need to take a close look at what
Amendment 1 would mean in a state with nation-leading pension debt
and corruption. |
