Former District 220 superintendent Tom Leonard is now, “…superintendent of the highly acclaimed Eanes Independent School District in Austin, Texas.”
Illinois spends more on pensions than any other state and a new report highlights the cost of so-called “double-dippers” who collect a full pension and get another job.
The nonprofit Wirepoints cites a former Illinois school superintendent who retired with a $230,000 pension before taking another position in Texas.
With an automatic 3% yearly raise, Tom Leonard will receive about $6.4 million in pension benefits from Illinois taxpayers based on actuarial assumptions when his annual Illinois pension jumps to $370,000 a year. According to the report, Leonard contributed a total of $322,000 to the Illinois Teacher’s Retirement System over the course of his career.
“They are not doing anything wrong; it is what the lawmakers allow them to do,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said. “I critique the lawmakers for allowing people to be able to retire that early and get a full pension and get jobs.”
The official shortfall at Illinois’ five state-run pension funds, which includes state workers, judges, teachers and university employees, increased to $144 billion in 2020, up $7 billion from the year before, according to a report by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
Moody’s Investors Service had a different take on the amount, putting Illinois’ net pension liabilities at closer to $317 billion.
Read more here.
Related: “Barrington District 220 superintendent Leonard leaving in June”