Roland Burris Makes $300K Between Salary and Pensions

CBS TV Chicago reports:

A guaranteed salary for life with raises every year—that's the impossible dream for most of us. But not for Illinois' elected officials.

A viewer e-mail to CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine asked what kind of Senate pension Roland Burris would get after his retirement. The answer: he won't get anything unless he runs and is elected for a full term.

But Sen. Burris, who formally retired 13 years ago, has been getting a big state pension ever since then.

Between his annual Senate salary of $174,000 and his $122,000 Illinois state pension, Burris is making nearly $300,000 a year.

Public service is a rather lucrative racket.