here to Eliminate Publicly Funded Pensions for Part-Time DuPage County Board Members If you had a part-time, public-service job, how much would you expect to be paid? $15,000?..." /> Eliminate Publicly Funded Pensions for Part-Time DuPage County Board Members - Rafael Rivadeneira

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Eliminate Publicly Funded Pensions for Part-Time DuPage County Board Members

posted: March 04, 2012 • Categories: Campaign Updates, Issues • Comments: 0

Sign the Petition here to Eliminate Publicly Funded Pensions for Part-Time DuPage County Board Members

If you had a part-time, public-service job, how much would you expect to be paid? $15,000? $20,000?  $30,000? DuPage County Board members pay themselves $50,000/year of your tax dollars for part-time work.  I’m sure we can all agree this is quite generous.

And as if that’s not enough, DuPage County Board members are also eligible for a tax-payer funded pension plan (a generous one to boot!). Board members are vested after only 8 years of their part-time service and stand to receive up to 80% of their salary for life when they become fully vested.

To become eligible for this lucrative tax-payer-funded pension, County Board members must put in 1,000 hours of county-related work in a year—although, since they aren’t required to actually account for those hours in any sense, who knows if they actually do. As they say, nice work if you can get it.

The trouble is, that voluntary public service shouldn’t be about receiving generous pay for unaccounted-for work with incredibly generous benefits unheard of in the private sector.

If you feel taxpayers should not pay pension benefits to part-time elected officials who voluntarily choose to be public servants on the DuPage County Board, please go here and sign the petition to eliminate publicly funded pensions for DuPage County Board members. Then share this blog post with your friends asking them to read and sign the petition too, so that DuPage County taxpayers and voters can be aware of which DuPage County Board candidates are pledging to eliminate publicly funded pensions for the elected members of the DuPage County Board.

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The Petition

In December the DuPage County Board members had the opportunity to eliminate their lucrative, tax-payer funded pension plan, which cost DuPage County tax-payers $352,997 in 2011. However, as the Better Government Association and the Daily Herald reported, the majority of the Board members voted to keep this controversial perk they receive for unaccounted-for, part-time work.

Since serving on the DuPage County Board is voluntary, part-time public service, many tax-payers are understandably outraged at this decision. This lucrative benefit—which politicians get to vote on for themselves!—is a magnet for career politicians.

Many politicians who support publicly funded pensions for unaccounted-for, part-time work have succumbed to an entitlement mentality of protecting themselves, giving themselves benefits unheard of for part-time work in the private sector. Many of these politicians have put their own comfort levels above what is prudent and above what is in the best interest for the hard-working, highly taxed people of DuPage County.

We need to choose County Board Members who are truly interested in cutting spending and looking out for the people they serve. A step in the right direction is to eliminate the incentive that attracts career politicians: publicly funded pensions.

We pledge to support only candidates for the DuPage County Board who pledge to eliminate the publicly funded pension plan for the elected members of the DuPage County Board. Currently, those County Board candidates are:

Rafael Rivadeneira (Rep) - District 2
www.VoteRafael.com

Sign the Petition here.

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