North Cook News

Jillian Rose Bernas points to school districts cushioning the pension of retiring educators while the state operated without a balanced budget as an example of Springfield’s deterioration.

“This salary spiking behavior is indicative of a culture among elected officials of catering to their friends, while disregarding the taxpayers in their communities that they were elected to represent,” Bernas told the North Cook News. “They do not practice the same discretion they would with their own money, disassociating with the fact that those are taxpayer dollars in an effort to appease their friends.”

Media outlets have reported that while the state’s public school system struggled to sustain itself, some public schools were paying out millions in penalties to some of the state’s largest pension funds after administering cash and benefits in excess of the legally mandated threshold.  

Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg)

“There is no penalty for school board members that approve salary spiking,” said Bernas, who is running against incumbent Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg) in the 56th House District. “Legislation was passed that penalizes school boards for spiking salaries beyond 6 percent and then 3 percent. However, it has not stopped this behavior. That is because the monetary penalties are paid with taxpayer money, so there is no real penalty to school board members. They just raise taxes.”  

The “pension spiking” law was enacted in 2005. The law stipulates that school districts are required to pay the cost difference for an end-of-career salary increase that exceeds more than 6 percent annually.  

At one point, annual raises as large as 20 percent were commonplace among those headed for retirement. Since the law was instituted, school districts have been forced to shell out upwards of $50 million in penalties to Teacher’s Retirement System, nearly half of it over the last four years, according to Illinois News Network,

“The District 54 School Board within my district had to pay a $1.27 million fine for illegally spiking salaries,” Bernas said. “This directly affected taxpayers in my district because all of the $1.27 million came from taxpayer dollars. That is $1.27 million that didn’t go to students and schools.”

Bernas said things have reached the point where enough is enough.

“I am running for state representative to make certain that tax dollars are going to students and not for paying school board member penalties and so that term limits prevent elected officials from getting cozy with special interest groups,” she said.

The 56th District includes Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Roselle and Schaumburg.