Chicago Tribune's Nasty Editorial on Greedy Retired Illinois Teachers

The Chicago Tribune has a nasty editorial after Illinois' massive state income tax increase. The subject is the well-to-do retired Illinois teachers :

The Teachers Retirement System of Illinois keeps track of how much it pays out in benefits. It divides its retirees into 17 categories based on the amount they collect.

Those in the fortunate group at the very top take in at least $8,000 a month—$96,000 a year. If any exclusive club has reason to celebrate the huge income-tax hike, this is it.

Five years ago, 860 retired educators collected that much from their state pensions. As of fiscal 2010, the number had more than tripled to nearly 3,000 retirees. Those ranks will grow in the years ahead as rising salaries translate into more lavish pension payouts. We're just talking about educators here. There are many more retired public workers collecting from Illinois. The state, by the way, doesn't tax pension income.

It's a similar story for retiree health care. There are 84,100 people eligible for health coverage under the State Employees Group Insurance Program, mostly former state and public university workers. They paid less than $9.8 million in premiums but the state paid $282.6 million in retire health care costs, according to figures obtained from the state by state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston. Most retirees pay absolutely nothing in health insurance premiums.

Pat Quinn calls overpaying retired teachers an "investment". The Pat Quinn recall is underway.