Michael Jordan’s $200K property tax bill can’t cover Highland Park’s No. 1 pensioner
Michael Jordan may have paid $178,900 in property taxes on his Highland Park home in 2012. But his property taxes aren’t even enough to cover the annual pension of Highland Park’s highest-compensated retired Teachers’ Retirement System member. Linda Hanson, 66, is a former Highland Park Township High School District 113 superintendent who has been retired...
Michael Jordan may have paid $178,900 in property taxes on his Highland Park home in 2012.
But his property taxes aren’t even enough to cover the annual pension of Highland Park’s highest-compensated retired Teachers’ Retirement System member.
Linda Hanson, 66, is a former Highland Park Township High School District 113 superintendent who has been retired for more than 10 years.
She currently collects a $214,000 annual pension.
Hanson paid just $244,500 toward her pension. But she will collect $6.7 million over the course of her retirement.
Hanson hasn’t done anything wrong – she paid in what’s been required legally under mutually agreed upon contracts. But her example highlights one of the biggest problems with Illinois’ broken defined benefit pension system.
While Illinois government workers’ pensions keep growing, their contributions to their pensions aren’t keeping up the pace – and Illinois taxpayers’ contributions continue to increase.
Hanson’s experience with Illinois’ defined benefit pension system is not unique. A similar scenario takes place in the pension calculation of each and every pension in Illinois’ five state-run systems.
For example, TRS members with more than 30 years of experience – a group that makes up more than 55 percent of all TRS retirees – receive pensions of $67,000, on average. Workers retiring today with a similar pension will receive benefits of $2 million to $2.5 million during retirement under current law, depending on their age of retirement.
An individual in the private sector would need to have $1.5 million or more in the bank when he or she retires to lock in similar benefits.
The pension bill passed earlier this month by the Illinois General Assembly doesn’t address the real problem behind Illinois’ pension crisis: the failed defined benefit system.
A real solution must have at its center 401(k)-style plans that give workers control of their own retirements.
That’s the only fair way to protect the retirements of Illinois’ current workers and retirees, and to ensure fiscal solvency for the state.