Pekin Daily Times | Dig deeper into pensions

To the editor:

The editorial on pension reform was informative, but it did not go far enough into the problem. The editorial needed to expose the obscene retirement packages that Illinois taxpayers have to fund. Not only do state employees have the option of retiring at an early age, the dollar amount of the pensions are totally out of line. Most private sector workers have to save and invest to assure they have the funds to survive their retirement years. This is not the case with the people in the State Employment Retirement System. They receive close to full pay for life. Talk about a sweet deal!

I am listing some examples of retired state employees’ pensions that I consider obnoxious. State human services retiree Sadrashiv Parwatikar retired at age 64 and receives an annual pension of $184,470. To date he has received $1,464,787. State human services retiree Kamal Modir retired at age 60 and receives an annual pension of $166,732; to date he has received $1,981,427. An example of state police pensions is $134,026 per year (John Lofton, retired at age 58 and has collected $1,077,048 to date).

The state university pensions are also out of control, two examples, Tapus K. Das Gupta, his annual pension is $426,855 and Edward Abraham has an annual pension of $414,709. All of these pensions are in the “double wow” factor.

All of the SERS pension info is available on the Taxpayers United of America website, www.taxpayersunited.org. It should be noted that all of the Springfield Democrats voted to approve the 67 percent state income tax surcharge. All of the tax dollars collected from this surcharge are being pumped into the state pension fund.

All of these pensions are an outrage and shame on our governors and congressmen (past and present) for allowing this type of thievery from the hard-working taxpayers of Illinois. With that said, I shudder to think what the pensions are for federal retirees.

— Gary Heiser, Pekin