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Fun with numbers

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Illinois

* Greg Hinz…

A new report out today from the Illinois Policy Institute concludes that the cost of worker pensions is soaking up a larger and larger share of your property taxes, on average 45 cents of every extra dollar levied by school districts, city halls and other local government statewide between 1996 and 2016.

Except, the state funds teacher pensions, not local school districts. The explanation…

According to its findings, 31 percent of local property-tax increases (on average $3,213 a year) had to be imposed because $3.2 billion a year in state aid was diverted to pay pensions through the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, which pays pensions for all teachers statewide except in Chicago. In other words, if the local districts had received their previous share of state spending, they wouldn’t have had to raise property taxes to pay for operations.

Of course, that assumes that the state would have appropriated as much if pensions weren’t on the table. And it assumes districts would not have raised their taxes had the state aid been available. So, what the institute is measuring here is a bit indirect.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

* And as One Illinois notes, the Illinois Policy Institute wants to shift state pension payment responsibilities down to local school district taxpayers…

“The most egregious thing about the article is the IPI wants to have it both ways,” said Bridget Shanahan, spokeswoman for the Illinois Education Association, which of course is in the IPI’s crosshairs as the state’s leading teacher organization, with 135,000 members. “They’re complaining about property taxes being too high on the one hand, but on the other hand the IPI wants to shift more pension costs onto local school districts,” as with language “buried” in the state budget compromise that passed earlier this year.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 11:54 am

Comments

===Illinois spends $3 Billion a year on non-citizens.===

Is that gross or net of taxes paid by these “non-citizens?” Also, do you have a cite for the $3 billion claim?

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:21 pm
IPI is deserving of epic trolling on this issue. Maybe a commercial from a shadow org with a harmless sounding name…..

“… but instead of protecting taxpayers like they claim, the Illinois Policy Institute is pushing a plan that would dramatically increase all of our property taxes. Call the Illinois Policy Institute today at 312-346-5700 and tell them that Illinoisans have had it with their socialist, tax-raising schemes”

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:23 pm
To be fair to IPI (you have no idea how hard it is for me to write that), they want the burden shifted to local schools because they believe that the local districts will curb spending. For example many districts’ contracts with their teachers have the districts picking up the teacher’s portion of the pension contribution, and IPI wants that to stop. Generally I don’t trust anything IPI has to say, they pick their conclusions and then search for the facts, but their logic is not quite as flawed as you made it seem here. I disagree with their priorities and quite often think their analysis is biased to the point of uselessness, but this hit didn’t quite hit the mark, IMO.

Comment by Perrid Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:24 pm
John 56 - I hear the dog whistles a blowin’. If you want to play that game we also have to take into account how much they pay through sales and other taxes, and how much they contribute to the economy. I doubt the account falls as deep into the red as you believe.

I have no idea where your $3 billion comes from, but that’s in the ballpark of 7%-8% of the State’s budget, which seems kinda high, unless you are trying to add in local/federal monies as well as other stuff. Who knows.

And you really want people, especially children, to go without an education, or medicine, or food, to keep taxes low(er), just because they were born on the other side of a line drawn on a map? That’s the hill you want to die on? OK…

Comment by Perrid Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:35 pm
Keep in mind that the local school districts do pay the pension costs for the end of career pay spikes, as well as for all non-teachers that they employ. The state still probably pays 80+% of the total pension costs, but there are pension costs at the local school district level.

Comment by Smalls Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:40 pm
Two years ago I stopped subscribing to my local daily newspaper. One reason being that most of the news was very “old” by the time the paper hit my house.

Another reason was because it started carrying the Illinois News Network ( subsidiary of IPI, if not mistaken ) feeds on stories like this. I read the article while standing in line at the grocery store - still did not spend $1 for the paper.

Unfortunately 25,000 households see these banner headlines and believe that they are getting the whole story. Lazy, unprofessional and slanted journalism.

Comment by illini Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:51 pm
I’ll be happy to take IPI’s free market principles under consideration once they disclose where they get their money from.

BTW - Will their opinion on “double-dipping” pensioners change now that Janus is a senior fellow?

Comment by Jocko Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 12:54 pm
“The most egregious thing about the article is the IPI wants to have it both ways,” said Bridget Shanahan, spokeswoman for the Illinois Education Association…”

Almost as egregious as the recent IEA statement about wanting the state to move the cap for end-of-career pension spikes back to 6%.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:00 pm
==I’ll be happy to take IPI’s free market principles under consideration once they disclose where they get their money from.==

Has CTBA or IEPI disclosed their funding sources? Seems like no one is too keen to share where their money comes from.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:14 pm
I wonder if IPI would go for a compromise? How about capping state contribution at 70,000 dollar pensions? Anything above that the locals pick up.

Comment by wondering Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:34 pm
Lake and Dupage counties would love it, wouldn’t they?

Comment by wondering Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:36 pm
” they want the burden shifted to local schools because they believe that the local districts will curb spending”

The IMRf model comes to mind - local municipal employees pay a 4.5 % fixed rate into the system and municipal employers pays an adjustable rate related to the actual true cost for just that group. Payments are mandatory and the city anticipates the costs of the pension plan when they are budgeting for annual raises. Most importantly local residents have a level of fiscal control via the ballot box by voting in Village/Library/Park Trustees.

Comment by Texas Red Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:40 pm
IPI and their ilk are complete hacks. We saw when they got their big shot to play government they lasted two weeks and went down in flames. Their ‘reports’ shouldn’t get play from reporters and their ‘experts’ hurt the credibility of the shows they appear on. Their return to irrelevance can not come soon enough.

Comment by Sonny Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:40 pm
Many local school districts are now paying the employee contributions for the teachers. It was negotiated into the collective bargaining agreement in my school district 8-10 years ago.

Comment by Dave W Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 1:57 pm
Do they never tire of picking on hard working people and trying, trying to make sure they live in squalor in their old age?

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:01 pm
So 78 cents of every additional prop tax dollar for fire departments and 81 cents of every additional prop tax dollar for police departments went to pensions.

Tell me again why this isn’t a problem?

Homeowners eventually wake up to this. Many have.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:07 pm
46th Ward, Here are two reports from FAIR:
1. https://www.fairus.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/Illinois_Cost_Study.pdf
2. http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2017/09/new-national-study-shows-illegal-immigration-costs-116b-annually.html

Comment by John 56 Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:09 pm
==How about capping state contribution at 70,000 dollar pensions? Lake and Dupage counties would love it, wouldn’t they?==

Teachers in Lake and DuPage counties would certainly hate it.

Comment by City Zen Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:12 pm
Perrid, I guess it depends on whose ox is being gored. Suppose you have an asset you worked for, a new car. The state wants to confiscate it because “you don’t deserve it”. Journalists whip up resentment toward anyone with a new car. Are we a government of laws or men?

Comment by John 56 Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:22 pm
John 56, both of those studies are from the same immigration reform group, and neither takes into account the fact that undocumented immigrants pay taxes just like any other resident of Illinois.

In fact, you could argue, using this logic, that educating, housing, incarcerating and providing health care for US citizens in Illinois costs taxpayers $38 billion per year.

Also, I’ll see your John 56 and raise you Matthew 23:43.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 2:41 pm
Apparently it’s just too much fun to have a whole potfull of money and just move it around here and there and maybe rip off some group by taking what should be theirs and giving it to someone else. And they better not be mad about it.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 3:09 pm
47th Ward. Jesus did not countenance virtue-signaling. So you go first: Sell all you have and give it to the poor.

Comment by John 56 Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 4:21 pm
=== Jesus did not countenance virtue-signaling===

You need a nap.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 4:27 pm
Lol John. A lot of Republicans who share your thoughts on immigration pretend to be Christians.

Me? I’m a sinner. But I don’t believe in demonizing a group of people and using some BS report to lie about the cost of our nation’s broken immigration system. If you think FAIR is a credible source of information on this subject, I pity you.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 4:30 pm
Reading IPI pension tripe is right up there with trying to debate with the erstwhile Arizona Bob. No matter what, it always reverts to “Teachers Bad” and I just don’t have the patience for it.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Aug 1, 18 @ 4:58 pm