Teacher’s Pension Sought After Working How Many Days?!

Whenever a politician wants an excuse to raise taxes, he usually mentions that he is doing it “for the children.” But, now it appears “the children” have nothing to do with a teachers’ union lobbyist’s lawsuit to collect a teacher’s pension. 

Watchdog.org reports:

After working one day as a substitute teacher in Illinois, David Piccioli could be entitled to an annual pension of more than $30,000.

And he’s suing the state to make sure he gets paid.

Piccioli is a retired union political activist who’s already pulling down a pair of state pensions from Illinois’ beleaguered public retirement system. But he’s taking the Teachers Retirement System to court to squeeze more money out of the state.

This sounds unbelievable, but the details make it even worse as watchdog.org reveals:

The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that Piccioli is already collecting $31,000 annually from the Teacher Retirement System, but he could get an additional $36,000 annually if he wins his case. He’s also collecting a $30,000-pension from a different state retirement system for his time as a legislative aide in Springfield, according to the Tribune.

So, how did Piccioli position himself to get a teacher’s pension?  Watchdog.org provides the details:

Piccioli is a retired lobbyist for the Illinois Federation of Teachers and never worked in a classroom, but he took advantage of a loophole in Illinois pension law to score his teaching pension.

In 2007, he worked one day as a substitute teacher at a Springfield school. Under Illinois pension law, that one day in the classroom allowed him to qualify for a pension that would pay him for all of his years of work as a member of the union.

This lawsuit and possible pension settlement will add to Illinois and Chicago’s public sector pension woes as watchdog.orgexplains:

The state’s pension funds are underfunded by more than $100 billion — not including Chicago’s pension funds, which are handled separately and are another $63 billion in debt — and are generally viewed as the worst state pension funds in the entire nation.