WILL COUNTY, IL – Public sector employees in Will County, Illinois went on strike yesterday after declining an offer from the county. The Local 1028 called the offer of a 14.5% raise and 90% taxpayer funded health insurance “paltry.”
Steve Stanek, a research fellow at the Heartland Institute, told Illinois Watchdog that the move shows, “how out of touch government workers are.”
Stanek’s pronouncement is spot on. The state of Illinois has the fourth highest debt and fifth highest debt per capita in the United States. A significant amount of that debt is in pensions for government employees. Chicago alone has a whopping $333 in unfunded obligations.
Heritage Foundation senior fellow Alison Fraser breaks down Chicago’s financial woes
The problem is so stark, a site called Illinoisisbroke.com has sprung up to rally support for pension reform. However, despite the fragile condition of Illinois’s economy and the significant problem posed by government employee benefits, government workers in Illinois are content to exert leverage over taxpayers for more money. To regard an offer that includes health insurance almost completely paid for by taxpayers and a 14.5% pay increase as “paltry” is an insult to all Illinois residents.
The debt that threatens the very stability of their state is not a concern of the government employees. Instead they prefer to withdraw their services in a blatant attempt to extort more from an already overburdened populace.
Keith Farrell is a frequent contributor to The Libertarian Republic, and Founder and President of Spirits of ’76 national nonprofit organization. He has a BA from the University of Connecticut in American Studies, with concentration in political science, and Urban and Community Studies. Follow him on Facebook.
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