Our commander in bloat (and flatulence)
By Catrina Petersen | The Center Square
More than 140,000 Illinois government-sector workers and retirees received more than $100,000 in annual compensation in 2023, according to a new report from Wirepoints.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said Illinois residents are forced to pay the nation’s highest property taxes, and one of the highest tax burdens overall, to fund the $100,000-plus government salaries and pensions of the public sector. Dabrowski explained how taxpayers paying these large salaries for a growing number of government workers is unsustainable.
“The bigger the divide gets between the government sector, which has pension guarantees, the Constitutional protections of Amendment 1, guaranteed labor contracts, guaranteed raises … they get all that. The private sector doesn’t get any of those kinds of protections, and yet they have to pay higher and higher taxes to pay for the government class. We’re creating two classes of workers: one that’s protected and one that’s not,” said Dabrowski.
Dabrowski said public school superintendents have the biggest share of the taxpayer funded pie. According to Wirepoints, there are 56,000 teachers and administrators in Illinois schools who are getting a pension or salary over $100,000.
“Kevin Nohelty, the current superintendent of Dolton SD 148, receives almost a half million a year to run a school district where just 14% of students can read at grade level. Those big, big salaries turn into big, big pensions. You’ve got Lawrence Wyllie of Lincoln-Way and his pension is almost $400,000,” said Dabrowski.
Open the Books counted 94,000 government members with $100K compensation back in 2018, and in 2023 more than 140,000 Illinois government-sector workers and retirees received more than $100,000 in compensation in 2023, that’s a 50% increase.
Read more here.
Related: “Illinois government’s $100K salary and pension club: 140,000 members and rising”
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