Quote of the Day
The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot
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Why It's Unlikely I'll Ever Move Back to Illinois
Any faithful reader knows that I have been highly critical of unions. To a large extent, they have become obsolete in a world where companies must market worker-friendly policies to attract talent. A lot of my resistance has to do with unsustainable costs and work rules, a burdensome bureaucracy and a counterproductive economic and political agenda. In particular, I've been very critical of public sector unions which negotiate unrealistic rules and commitments at the expense of the taxpayer.
The Chicago Tribune has been exploring some of the more egregious, abusive examples of public pensions. Enter one 57-year-old Dennis Gannon. The former GOP Governor Jim Thompson before leaving office in 1991 signed a law allowing city of Chicago pensions to be based on a former/current worker's union-paid salary. Gannon started working in the streamroller engineering area of the city of Chicago in the early 1970's, eventually earning pay of about $56,000 a year in 1990. He then took a leave of absence to take a union job. He eventually resigned in 1993 in order to cash out pension contributions. Now here is where the story becomes interesting.
Gannon was well on the way of becoming a highly compensated union official, eventually earning $240,000/year until he left last year to join a hedge fund that does business with public pensions. At some point he discovered the loophole in the Thompson-signed legislation, but he was no longer eligible after he resigned in 1993. He got bureaucratic assistance to get rehired in 1994, without quitting his union job, and then immediately went on leave of absence after just 1 full day until he retired from the city in 2004 at the grand old age of 50. Long story short, since then he's been pulling $158,000 a year (so far over $1M) on a city pension. That's right--nearly triple his last city salary for working less than 20 years, nearly five times the average pension from the city. So far what everybody has been saying in effect was that everything was perfectly legal; they didn't write the law; they are playing by the rules and getting their fair share.
A second case is Al Naimoli, a 59-year-old former cement worker for the city whom earned $15,000/year before taking a leave of absence; he is now getting $158,000/year since he retired last year from the city. He will be eligible for two other union-related pension, leading to $438,000/year total by next year. The story here is that evidently the above-cited Thompson-signed law doesn't prohibit multiple/concurrent pensions.
Charles LoVerde took a leave of absence from his $44K job from the city water department in 1998 and is now expected to qualify for 3 pensions totaling nearly $500K/year.
There are at least another 5 union officials with inflated city pensions, despite the fact that the state is rated among the worst in terms of debt.
I'm not looking to bash greedy union officers here. But triple-dipping pensioners with nearly 8-figure expected lifetime city pensions in a nearly insolvent state: even if it is legal, it's unconscionable.
Political Humor
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Moody Blues, "Steppin' in a Slide Zone"
