Above / Illinois State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-41st) has been addressing “Double-Dipping” since he first went to Springfield in January 2015. After serving 3 ½ years, Wehrli was elevated to the role of Assistant Minority Leader in October 2018. (PN Photo August 2017)
UPDATE, April 11, 2019 / Rep. Grant Wehrli’s “Double-Dipping” Bill Clears Illinois House
SPRINGFIELD—State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) is hoping to provide taxpayers with some much-needed relief by addressing the practice of “double-dipping” of pension benefits by fire chiefs.
HB 3522<http://ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=3522&GAID=15&GA=101&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=120183&SessionID=108>, which was approved by the Illinois House on Thursday with unanimous, bipartisan support, specifically applies to retired fire chiefs who re-enter service as a fire chief for a different department while collecting a full pension from their first position.
“This legislation aims to take taxpayers off the hook from funding a second defined benefit pension for those who would take advantage of a pension loophole,” said Wehrli. “Fire chiefs are important public servants who deserve to earn fair benefits, but Illinoisans simply cannot afford to pay for two defined benefit pensions for the same individual. The defined contribution plan outlined in HB 3522 allows for a retirement benefit to be earned, but not on the shoulders of taxpayers.”
Through HB 3522, fire chiefs who begin their service after January 1 of 2020 may only continue to collect a pension benefit while being employed as a fire chief if they participate in a defined contribution plan rather than a defined benefit plan.
“Most pensions are based on a defined benefit, or guaranteed-return benefit plan,” Wehrli said. “By placing them in a defined contribution plan, their benefit is similar to a 401-k plan. Disability insurance benefits are unchanged in this proposal.”
With the 115-0 House vote on Thursday, HB 3522 now moves to the Senate for consideration.
—Submitted by Cheryl Meyer, Senior Communications Analyst, Office of the Republican Leader, IL House of Representatives
Original PN Post, Sept. 5, 2017 / Just a few months after the General Assembly voted to permanently raise taxes on Illinois families and businesses, reports indicate that most, if not all, of the billions in additional taxes we’ll be paying will be eaten up by this year’s required payments to our struggling state pension systems. Think about that for a moment. Most, if not all, of it will be eaten up by pension debt and it still won’t be enough to address our growing pension liability.
Funding public pensions is the largest burden taxpayers face. Out of 50 states, we rank among the very worst in pension funding. According to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) Illinois’ five state employee retirement systems have nearly $130 billion in obligations, but only about $78 billion in assets. Local governments in Illinois are struggling with an additional $55 billion in unfunded pension liability. The only solution is to rein in costs, either through comprehensive reform, or one small bite at a time.
While no over-arching pension reforms were passed in this session of the General Assembly, we did take another bite out of the problem. The Governor recently signed into law legislation I sponsored that will help curb pension double-dipping as it pertains to municipal police pensions.
House Bill 418, signed into law as PA 100-0281, closes a loophole that had allowed a police officer to retire and begin collecting his or her pension; then accept a new job with a different Police Department collecting a salary and accruing benefits in a second police pension system. This loophole was costing municipalities and local taxpayers a fortune.
Under the new law I sponsored along with Senator Mike Connelly, retired law enforcement officers accepting new active duty positions will not be eligible for a new pension through a police pension fund or the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, but will be allowed to enroll in a 401 K-style defined contribution plan. The change was inspired by a recent court ruling involving the Naperville Police Pension Fund and a local police chief who was earning a salary of more than $160,000 and accruing new pension benefits while collecting payments from his first pension.
I firmly believe that law enforcement officers have earned their pensions, but they should not be entitled to multiple pensions that we can’t afford. Without reforms, our pension funds are headed toward insolvency. Closing this loophole is only one small bite out of a much larger problem, but it’s a start.
—Grant Wehrli
