Lobbyists Drawing Lucrative Pensions Partially Paid By Taxpayers

January 18, 2012 12:00 AM " CHICAGO (CBS) - They aren’t government employees. They are in effect lobbyists, but their salaries and pensions are funded in part by your tax dollars.

As CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, one of those groups is Township Officials of Illinois (TOI), which lobbies extensively to preserve township government and to oppose reforms that critics say could cut wasteful spending.

For example, it costs northwest suburban Avon Township taxpayers about $800,000 a year to maintain 11 miles of roads in unincorporated areas, “when the county could more cost effectively handle those roads,” according to Township Supervisor Sam Yingling.

But Yingling says legislative efforts to reform township government are thwarted by TOI, which is funded in part by taxpayers through membership fees paid by township officials.

“The conflict that I see,” said Yingling, “is the fact that you have a private organization that is using public funds to lobby against the best interests of the people.”

TOI has four full time staff members, including two registered lobbyists in line to receive pensions from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), pensions that are partly paid for by taxpayers.

“No lobbyist should be eligible to collect a public pension,” says Yingling "

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